


A Summer Away

by themoistplinth



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Coran is Not, Extremely Long Multichapter fic, Friendship Between Everyone, Keith is Surprisingly Good With Kids, Long Romance, M/M, Multiple chapters, Pining, Really Slowburn, Summer Camp, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-28 05:59:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7627807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themoistplinth/pseuds/themoistplinth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every summer Keith is shipped off to summer camp by his foster parents; now that he's eighteen he'd hoped he'd get to spend his summer at home, but instead he's been forced to work at the camp as a councillor. He thought this summer would be a hot, miserable, isolated hell but surprises can come when you least expect them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

The bus rolled up the gravel drive slowly and Keith stared out the window with apprehension; his head was swimming with memories of the log cabins and lake. He inwardly groaned at the thought of the next six weeks of activities and campfires and bedbugs. 

Keith felt the bus roll to a stop and mentally prepared himself for the smell of the woodland area, the sweaty and dilapidated bus a far preferable alternative to the scent of the insect-ridden camp. He got up from his uncomfortable seat, grabbed his rucksack and slowly made his way down the aisle, the only person to be unfortunate enough to have taken the trip to the camp. Even before he was signed up to be a councillor he would arrive two days early like he was today just so he wouldn’t be at home for as long. 

Since he was ten, eight years ago, his foster-parents had shipped him off to the camp at every opportunity, just to be rid of him. They’d only taken him in to prove a point and now couldn’t get rid of him lest their neighbours distrust the perfect life they’d built around themselves. They would force him onto the bus with a cheery smile and tell him to ‘Have a nice trip’.

Bastards.

Keith stood off the bus and scowled; now too old to attend the camp he’d hoped that they’d allow him reprise from his annual punishment but instead they did the next worst thing; they got him a job, the assholes. Now he was one of the six camp councillors, older men who most likely only took the job to be closer to young boys and girls. 

He walked up the path and stared at the archway over the path that read in hand-carved, carelessly painted words ‘Camp Voltron’. It wasn’t even a clever name, they just chose the first thing that came to mind and built a terrible summer camp around it to make some quick money. He started his way towards the main cabin, sitting close to the entrance, for his ‘Orientation’, telling the councillors how to best perv after kids while they swim and generally ignore their well-being. 

The large, staff cabin was one of the few places in the camp Keith had never had the displeasure of stepping in, save for the back room; he’d imagined it as fully furnished and luxurious, the one place built to last properly so that the staff could enjoy themselves whilst laughing about the kids’ injuries and failures from the day. Probably covered with Shag carpeting and filled with ashtrays for the men’s filthy mouths’ cigars. 

He pushed open the strong door and found himself simultaneously disappointed from the lack of lavish luxuries and not surprised at how much nicer than the other cabins it was. There wasn’t a single hole in the walls and the ceiling was dry; several lights hung from it without flickering and in the centre of the room was a simple rug with a large round table. Four people sat around it with a fifth standing in front, none of them councillors he’d ever seen before. 

Keith looked over the five people; the oldest any of them seemed to be was mid-thirties, as opposed to the geriatric pensioners he was used to. The youngest was most likely eighteen, with dark skin and short hair. He looked familiar but Keith didn’t care enough to think of where from. As well as the boy around the table there was another dark-skinned boy already wearing a yellow camp shirt, a twenty something year old girl with flowing pale hair and a ginger man with the largest moustache that Keith had ever seen, easily the oldest one in the room. 

Standing at the front was a man wearing a black camp shirt with a not unattractive scar and a sleek prosthetic arm. He smiled warmly. “Welcome,” he said kindly, “That’s all of us then. Please, sit down, I’ll start going over things”. 

Keith took the chair at the front on the left, one of the two left free, next to the large boy in the yellow shirt. The man at the front started talking, “Okay, let’s start this,” said the man, “My name is Shiro. My grandfather ran this camp for the last thirty years before he unfortunately,” he said unfortunately with a suddenly rather unenthusiastic tone before resuming his bright, cheery one, “passed away; he left the camp to my father but he rejected it and I took over. The first thing I did was sack the previous staff, which is why, of course, you’re all here”. He gestured to them brightly.

“With me in charge the camp will be run differently to how it has been since the very day it opened-our main goal is to make sure our campers feel happy, even at our own expense. I know some of you have been here a few times before,” his eyes flicked over Keith to the large boy and finally rested on the dark skinned boy, who now wore a cocky smile, “So I’m sure you’ll remember how awful it used to be. That was no accident, the camp was barely run to turn as big of a profit as possible and staffed by my grandfather’s closest friends.

“I know from the applications you all submitted,” Keith ground his teeth silently, cursing his foster parents for applying on his behalf without even indicating that they were the ones signing him up, “That you all know first aid. This was one of the reasons each of you will have been chosen, along with the fact that a few of you already know the camp and that none of you have a criminal record”. 

“Were their many applicants?” the girl with the long pale air said, her voice practically dripping with a British accent. 

“Well…no,” Shiro confessed, his face flushed, “But rest assured you were the best of the bunch,” he resumed his smile and began speaking professionally again, “Each of you has been chosen for a different role to play at the camp, each equally integral for it to run smoothly and easily,” Shiro took a note from his pocket and read it aloud, “Coran, you are going to stay mostly indoors and prepare activities for the campers”. 

The ginger man with the bushy moustache nodded and said, “Yes sir!” in an accent equally English to the girl’s, although more eccentric. 

“Allura,” Shiro said, “You’re going to be helping me with coordinating and such”. The girl with the long flowing hair nodded but remained silent, “Hunk you’re in charge of cooking and looking after any emotional issues that any camper might have. You up for it?” 

“I can so do that, back home I worked in a restaurant and at high school, like, fifty people used to talk to me about their feelings,” the large boy babbled, “Of course eventually I graduated and the restaurant fired me because I got angry at the head chef but he tried to burst the yolk on eggs before serving it to the customers and I was like ‘No way, that’s the customer’s right to do’ so she was like-”. 

“That’s great,” Shiro smiled, “Lance, you’re responsible for clearing up after the activities are finished.” 

“Aw man,” the familiar boy grumbled, his name not helping Keith at all remember how he knew him, “How comes Hunk gets the fun job.” 

“And Keith,” Shiro said, ignoring Lance and staring at Keith, “Your application seemed the most rounded so you’re gonna be basically doing smaller versions of everyone’s jobs all at once. You’re gonna have to run all over the camp taking care of things anyone else needs help with. It’s the most difficult position we have, think you can manage that?” 

“Y-yeah,” Keith stammered, blushing for no reason he could think of, “Easy.” Lance pointedly stared at him, his face irritating, from across the table but said nothing.

“Great,” Shiro smiled, “As well as these duties you’re going to run activities for the campers during the day and try not to let them get out their bunks during the night. You’ll take shifts but its’s more than likely your sleep schedule will get messed up since you’ll be awake for most of the night. Until we have more money we’re gonna be understaffed, so if you aren’t already, get used to coffee. Any questions?” 

Lance’s hand shot straight up and Keith had to resist the urge to roll his eyes-he didn’t know why but he immediately disliked Lance. He practically emitted arrogance, “Can we give punishments” Lance said, “And, if so, what are they?” 

Keith scowled; of course someone like him would ask something like that, “You can,” Shiro said uncertainly, “But it’ll just be exclusion from certain activities or being kept in their rooms during the day. We aren’t going to have the punishments the old staff used to give”. 

Keith shuddered-those punishments were foul, sometimes downright cruel. Keith had received them a lot in the past, not for any particular reason (mostly) save for that the men enjoyed watching the kids cry. Keith refused to give them the satisfaction, which only made them try harder. 

“What kind of wildlife are in the surrounding area, and can we train them?” the ginger man, Coran, said. 

“There’s the standard woodland creatures for the area,” Shiro said uncertainly, “There’s stuff about it in the staff packs I’m about to give you. And, uh, I don’t think you can train them. I mean you can try as long as you don’t get hurt. Don’t encourage the kids to try”. 

“What do you do in the camp?” Allura asked, “You mentioned coordination?” 

“I tend to handle the paperwork,” Shiro said, “As well as stocking the camp with what it needs and deciding what the kids are gonna do week by week. It doesn’t sound like it but it’s a lot of work”. 

“So I’m some sort of glorified secretary?” Allura demanded, anger flaring in her eyes. Keith made a mental note to never cross her nor make any sort of assumption based on her gender or size. 

“Not at all,” Shiro assured her nervously, “More of my second in command. You’ll have nearly the same role as me, just not able to sign any forms. I chose you because you said in your application you have a lot of managerial experience and frankly I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing yet”. 

Allura seemed content with his answer and moved back against her chair. Shiro looked the group over for any more questions and received blank faces in return. Assured by this Shiro slid five plastic packets out over the table to each of them, “This will tell each of you exactly what the job needs. I hope you can read it all before tomorrow, or at the very least, by when the kids get here. There’s a map of the camp inside and manuals for any and all equipment the camp may have, and a handwritten pamphlet for each of your individual and shared duties. Keith, I’m sorry, you just have photocopies of everyone else’s”. 

Keith mumbled, “It’s fine,” before catching Lance’s eye and repeating, “It’s fine,” in a stronger, more resolute voice. Lance looked like he was holding back a snicker. 

“One last thing then,” Shiro said and pulled five tickets from his pocket, “At the end of the summer I’m hoping to hold a camp-wide competition with four different teams. Each of you is going to lead one of these teams and each of these pieces of paper has a team on it. Allura, I’m sorry, you're going to be too busy to have a team of your own”. He held out his hand with the four pieces of crumpled paper, “The rest of you take a team”. 

Hunk, Coran, Lance and Keith reached in and took a team; Keith unfolded his and saw, in neat and precise handwriting, the word ‘Red’. Hunk looked up from his with a grin, “Yellow!” he grinned happily, pointing at his shirt, “This is awesome”. 

Lance smirked as he read his, “I’m team blue, best colour there is,” he said assuredly, making Keith want to smack him across the head. 

“I’m red,” Keith offered into the conversation not wanting to be the last to speak. 

“Which leaves me to be black,” spoke Coran proudly, “Black like the night, or a ninja ready to strike and defeat all of your teams!” Coran waved his wands in a mock imitation of karate. Keith could see why the man had become a camp councillor at his age-he was an absolute child at heart. 

“Your maps have where you’re all staying marked on them,” Shiro said across them, “It’s too late today to start preparing so I’d like you to all get settled in and well acquainted with each other. I’m staying with you too but I have a few things to do before I join you. Dinner will be whenever Hunk decides to cook it”. 

Shiro turned away from them and it was clear that he expected them to leave. He wandered through an old, oak door into a back room that Keith had once been forced to clean with his own clothes. He knew there was a back door and that the room had once stunk of tobacco. 

The five of them stood up from the table and started toward the door-Allura glanced to the door Shiro had gone through, as if considering whether she was meant to follow, but decided to go with the rest of them to their accommodations. Save for Hunk, Keith noticed the others didn’t seem to have any bags with them carrying clothes or personal items. Hunk however had a back-pack that was practically bursting and through a hole in it he could see wires and circuit boards. Keith wondered what he would do with them. 

“So Keith,” Lance said, breaking Keith out of his trance, “Ready for me to crush your team like I used to crush you?” 

Keith looked at Lance dumbly, “I guess? I’m sorry I can’t remember how I knew you”. 

They started down the gravel path deeper into the camp to where the rest of the cabins stood, the eight of them sitting in a semicircle around a fire pit. From there Keith could see the lake that they used to send them out in boats full of holes into. Lance frowned, “It’s me. Lance. Your rival. We went here together, I nearly always beat you at all the events”. 

Keith vaguely remembered a boy that looked similar to Lance from a few years ago who would get competitive and overly serious about events, “I think I remember you. I never really paid any attention to that stuff; I only did it to stop the old men from getting on my back”. 

Lance’s brow furrowed, “You’re lying, you always came second or first, no one’s that good without putting in major effort”. 

Keith shook his head, “Not really”. 

“I could barely beat you! I once trained an entire year just to be able to be faster than you, no way did you just not care”. 

Keith shrugged, “I just went off of instinct, I shut down for that time and just ran. I’m sorry for not remembering you”. 

“Can you believe this guy?” Lance said loudly and incredulously, “That’s such bullshit, no way did you just not try”. 

“You better watch yourself around the children Blue,” Coran chided, “Who knows how old our charges will be”. 

“They’re eight or up,” Allura supplied, “At eighteen however they stop being allowed to attend”. 

“Blue?” Lance muttered, “That’s a terrible nickname”. 

The six of them reached the eight main cabins and start down a path between two of them that led into the woods. Lance drifted away from Keith and started chatting to Hunk and Allura struck up a conversation with Coran. Keith lagged behind the group on his own, thinking about his poor experiences on the very ground he stood on for the last ten years. He thought about how grateful he would have been for any of the new staff to have worked for any of the time he’d spent here, even just for a day. The year he stopped attending the camp as a camper just happening to be the year it started improving could not be a coincidence, it had to be some kind of divine act of mockery. 

Not far from the cabins they reached another, solitary cabin; this too was one of the few places in the camp he’d never entered. The old men never brought the kids back to their rooms, it was forbidden. A creeper grew up the side and a chimney jutted out the roof. The surrounding area was thick with trees and somewhere a bird chirped. 

Lance was the first into the cabin, pushing the door open and sniffing the air, “Smells like cigarettes,” he murmured before hopping into one of the six beds, furthest from the door on the right, “This one’s mine,” he called to the others as they entered. He was right, it did smell like cigarettes. 

“I think Shiro’s already claimed this one,” Hunk said and gestured to the one unmade bed closest to the door on the left. The beds each had drawers within their frames and a small light above them, each one with an individual switch to their right. Allura moved into the room and took the bed in the middle on the left, next to Shiro’s. Hunk followed her and took the one behind it and Coran took the one next to Lance’s in the middle, leaving the last one on the right, closest to the door, to Keith. He wandered over and dropped his rucksack and information packet on the bed. He pulled open the drawers and found them full of shirts of varying sizes and colours. He pulled them all out except for the red ones. 

“Anyone wanna trade their colour shirts for red ones?” he said, holding up shirts of black, yellow and blue. Hunk was the first to respond, quickly swapping out his red ones for Keith’s yellow. Allura eyed them but, having no team colour, remained silent.

“Sure you wanna get rid of those black shirts?” Lance smirked, “What’re you gonna wear to your My Chemical Romance concerts?” 

Keith knew somehow Lance would make that joke; he was wearing all black clothes that were too small for him, bought from charity shops with the small amount of allowance he was given, which made him seem like some form of cheap goth or emo. Keith just scowled and through the blue shirts at Lance, “Just take them asshole,” he muttered. 

“Language,” Coran reminded Keith and threw him his red shirts in return for the black, “You’d best not speak like this in front of the children, you mustn’t let them learn this kind of thing from you. You should teach them survival skills and how to be the best that they can be!” 

“I’m gonna go scope the kitchen,” Hunk said suddenly, “I’ll come back once I’ve started cooking to get you guys down”. He immediately set out of the door without waiting for any form of response, closing the door behind him as he strolled down the steps away. 

“Lovely fellow,” Coran stated and Keith silently agreed; of everyone he’d met so far they all seemed kind, save Lance who had premade opinions of how he would treat Keith. Thinking back Keith vaguely remembered Hunk as one of the few people who had been kind to him at the camp; everyone else had steered clear, beware of the weird boy, but Hunk was kind and would talk sometimes. He would talk to anyone. He was overflowing with kindness and didn’t seem to want it to go to waste; everyone else left Keith as a freak. He was the strange emo boy with the too-long hair, the freaky quiet kid, the unusual guy who would win all the events, the seventeen year old loner who cried at night. 

Keith moved his bag and lay down on the bed, pulling a random item from his packet. He held a pamphlet that read ‘Cooking in Camp’ in large letters in Shiro’s neat handwriting. He began to skim it but it all seemed standard; don’t waste supplies, clean all equipment constantly, don’t allow for contamination, that sort of thing. Shiro hadn’t let a single possibility for risk slip through and Keith respected him for it. For a second it occurred to Keith that Hunk wouldn’t have read this before setting off but looking over at Hunk’s bed, the only one without someone sitting or lying on it (except Shiro’s), and saw only his bag remained, the information packet gone too. 

Allura and Coran were doing the same as Keith in reading the information supplied by Shiro, both engrossed in the thick manual on what each of them would be expected to do outside of their regular activities; Lance however was tapping quickly on his phone. Keith thought to himself how little he felt surprised that Lance wasn’t reading up on what his responsibilities were to the campers, rolling his eyes at the arrogance. 

Eventually Hunk returned to the cabin, his map in hand, and called the four of them to the mess hall. It was a squat, industrial building that ruined the woodsy aesthetic the rest of the camp held; Shiro had obviously attempted to make the kitchen seem friendlier by drawing cute woodland creatures and butterflies on the side. There was still space left however, low down, for the campers themselves to draw additions. Inside was a fully, yet lazily, furnished canteen with tables with uncomfortable chairs attached. At the far end was the kitchen, obscured from full few by a line of serving tables which would normally be staffed by one old man that would scoop gruel out of a bowl for each camper. They were normally all dirty and covered in grime, however today shone pristinely. Hunk led them through gate in the serving area through to the kitchen were clearly new cookers and fridges lined the walls and shining metal tables stood in the centre. Hunk grinned as he led them in, clearly pleased with the equipment he had been provided. 

“Isn’t it great?” he practically laughed, “I always imagined just huge vats of slop back here but Shiro’s given us cookers and knives and freezers full of meat and vegetables and spice racks and all kinds of stuff”. 

“What are you cooking us then Yellow?” Coran sniffed. Keith sniffed the air too, enjoying the spicy scent that wafted through it. 

“Shiro had a little box in one of the fridges, and another in the freezer, that was marked ‘For Staff’ and it was full of stuff that we couldn’t give to campers, like nuts and chillies and regular things too so I thought I’d start our time off right with this curry recipe my mom taught me. It’s cooking in that huge pot over there,” he babbled and finally stopped speaking as he pointed to a huge pot, easily the size of a large sink, sitting over a flame in the corner. 

“How much are you expecting us to eat?” Keith asked in bewilderment. 

“Oh I’m making a lot of it, I’ll freeze it and reheat small parts of it over the summer for us to eat, it’ll save time while I cook for the kids,” Hunk explained quickly, not taking a single breath between his words. Keith smelt the air again appreciatively and decided he wouldn’t mind eating the meal over and over during the summer. 

Hunk ushered them back out into the dining area as he finished up the meal; as Hunk began to bring out bowls of curry and rice Shiro walked into the room in a black tank top. He looked as if he’d been doing manual labour rather than sitting in an office doing paperwork as Keith had imagined him doing. When he saw them all stare at him, save for Hunk who had gone to fetch the rest of the bowls, he shrugged, “I’ve been pulling the new canoes into the lake’s shed,” he explained as he sat down next to Keith. 

The six of them sat in silence as they ate Hunk’s curry; it was the exact level of spice that Keith could tolerate and no one else complained at its heat. Hunk finished first and immediately rushed back to the kitchen to freeze what was left of his dish, not bothering to ask if anyone had wanted seconds; he’d managed to give every single person the exact amount of food that they would want. 

Despite Hunk’s protests Shiro walked into the kitchen to help him clean dishes and Coran warned Lance, Allura and Keith they’d all have to do so too in the coming weeks; he claimed he’d read it in the employee handbook and Keith believed him. Allura however said she’d read further into the book than Coran had and had read nothing of the sort; the two began to bicker and soon Keith joined in, along with Lance eventually, and then Hunk and Shiro when they returned. Soon they were all talking together comfortably, none of them being left out. They left the mess hall after a while, all content and friendly amongst each other. They made their way back to their accommodations still talking, Coran with Lance, Allura with Hunk and Shiro with Keith. 

Shiro was a far kinder man than his grandfather had been; he spoke with a friendly lack of expectation in his voice and walked in a manner that suggested equality between them, rather than a boss and an employee. Before he realised it Keith was talking about his less than adequate stays at the camp as a child and Shiro was sharing his too. He revealed himself to be just twenty five and having lost his arm a decade and a half before at the camp in a motorboat accident. 

“How was the camp not closed after that?” Keith gaped and Shiro laughed. 

“Because my dad’s dad owned it,” he chuckled, “Who would sue their own father?” 

They reached the cabin and they all split up, heading to their own beds. Coran and Shiro began to change into pyjamas immediately, not caring about the others in the room-Keith caught sight of Shiro shirtless and blushed upon seeing his strong muscles across his chest, rippling and defined. Hunk and Allura had both gone into the bathroom to brush their teeth and Lance was applying some kind of face cream. Keith went to the second bathroom with pyjamas from his drawers and his toothbrush, locking the door as he got changed. He returned to the bed to find everyone there except Lance, who was taking up the other bathroom. Shiro and Coran both took Keith’s place in the second bathroom and Keith climbed into bed. 

He wandered what the summer held for him; already it seemed a far more pleasant experience than his previous trips had been-he felt that he had friends in the others already, save for Lance, and that he could really help the kids at the camp who might have faced the same disadvantages he had. And with Hunk in the kitchen rather than a cruel old man he knew that he wouldn’t go hungry like he had many times before. 

Shiro called light’s out to the others after a while as Lance finally exited the bathroom and Keith switched off his personal light. Keith lay awake in the firm, comfortable mattress, lying in a bed for the first time at the camp which wasn’t lumpy and bug infested. A feeling of hope sparked in his chest, an unfamiliar, rare felt sensation and despite himself Keith grinned. He had a good summer ahead of him for the first time in forever and many other kids would have it too. Keith shut his eyes feeling safe and drifted off to sleep.


	2. Preperations

Keith woke up peacefully as Shiro roused them all; his bed was so comfortable he was momentarily confused about where he was. His watch read 7:30 and around him the rest of the staff began to moan about how early it was-for Keith however this was a lie-in so he didn’t mind. One by one they started getting ready for the day, trudging into the bathrooms or changing their clothes. A small part of Keith was disgruntled that he didn’t see Shiro shirtless again (having changed before he woke them all) but Keith pushed it out of his head. It was an immature desire anyway.  


Once changed they all wandered down to the mess hall, mostly feeling too groggy or annoyed at the early start to chat with each other. Keith felt perfectly capable but remained silent, and Shiro was clearly the same. Even Hunk was unusually quiet as they made their way toward the kitchen, his previous excitement about cooking for them gone. About five minutes after walking into the kitchen he walked back out, his eyes more awake, and presented each of them with a dull bowl of Corn Flakes and a pot of coffee.  


Once they’d all eaten and had put a large dent into the amount of coffee available Shiro finally spoke, albeit quietly and slowly.  


“Today’s not gonna be easy,” he started, “We have a lot to do and only today to do it; as you’re all aware tomorrow is when the kids start rolling in and once that happens we won’t have as much time for maintenance and such. So I’m dividing up the chores”.  


Shiro pulled a notebook from his back pocket and cleared his throat, “Coran, you and I are going to be making up the cabins that the campers will be staying in. It sounds easy but, again, there’s a lot to do, especially concerning the hole in Cabin 5”.  


Coran took a long gulp of his coffee but lazily saluted Shiro in reply. Satisfied Shiro flicked his eyes back down to his notebook, “Lance, Keith, you two are gonna be finishing up down at the lake, finishing up the docks and organising the sheds. It’s the hardest job but pretty much the most straight forward”.  


“Can I trade partners?” Lance immediately and Keith didn’t bother objecting-he wouldn’t mind himself.  


Shiro shook his head, “No, you two need to get along if you’re gonna both work here. Besides I need Hunk and Allura together to check the surrounding fence for holes and lug the rest of the food into the kitchens. It’s hard manual labour but you both look strong enough for it”.  


Hunk nodded and Allura showed no hint of the job being given to her other than a small twitch of her mouth; she didn’t’ seem to say much Keith noted.  


“No time like the present then,” Shiro said sheepishly, “I assume we’ll all meet back here for lunch for a progress report. Hop to it,” and with that Shiro seamlessly moved away from the table with Coran trailing behind him-soon after Allura and Hunk left too leaving a scowling Keith and a sneering Lance behind.  


“Figures I’m stuck with you,” he muttered mutinously and Keith ignored him. He got up from the table, leaving the plates and cups behind, and quickly chased after him.  


After briskly walking down to the lake Keith could immediately see where Shiro had been working the previous night; long lines lead from the lake to shed, which was unlocked with a set of keys sitting in the undone bike lock; Shiro was many things, Keith thought, but careful was not one of them.  


The lake itself was big, round and usually unpleasant. The old men used to throw the camp’s litter in rather than bother paying any services to come pick it up for them. The surrounding shores used to be overgrown and unusable and the boats used to cross it were broken and covered in holes. Pathetically reaching into the lake was a long, wooden pathway, mouldy and unpleasant to walk across, the weak wood feeling like it would fall apart at any moment.  


As Keith looked across the lake now, however, he saw a completely different image; the entire lake’s beaches were clear of wildlife, kept back by a tall fence, and the water sparkled blue-it must have cost a fortune to have it purified. It hardly looked like the same body of water that he’d been forced to swim in all those years. The wooden dock was completely torn down and in its place a newly built wooden structure stood, a few wooden planks left unplace sitting at its start. Hammers and nails and a saw were sitting next to the spare planks and Keith assumed they would be expected to finish it themselves. How Shiro had managed it all with a prosthetic arm and no help was a mystery.  


“Hey remembered when I kicked your ass at a canoe race here?” Lance smirked from behind Keith, ruining the beautiful ambiance that the sparkling, crystal waters had created.  


“No,” Keith replied shortly, brushing past Lance to check the sheds themselves. Keith could practically feel Lance stare daggers into his head from behind him but he ignored it, choosing to look over the sheds instead.  


For as long as Keith could remember creepers and other plants made the shed inaccessible to all and so he’d never seen inside of them; he could imagine what they would have been like in the time before, covered in cobwebs and falling apart. As he looked upon it he noted the cleanliness of it, the floor clearly freshly swept and nary a spider in sight. The items within it, ball and boats and buoys, were jumbled up however and clearly moved to the side just for cleaning.  


Turning back to the lake Keith started towards the spare wooden planks; starting with the hardest job, he reasoned, made the most sense. He slipped on a pair of thick gloves that lay next to the wood.  


“Help me with this would you?” Keith called out to Lance, who swaggered toward him slowly. Keith hoisted one end of a plank and Lance, eventually, took the other gingerly.  


“Nicer if we had this in our day,” Lance said plainly, “I once knew someone who almost lost a foot on the old dock”.  


“That was Ferguson, right?” Keith muttered, carrying the majority of the plank’s heavy weight as they shimmied down the dock to where they would lay it.  


“So you remember him but not me?” Lance demanded and Keith shrugged carefully. They rested the plank down and continued down the dock to grab a hammer and nails, “Who else do you remember?” Lance asked, his voice a combination of annoyed and curious.  


“Some tall kid called Matt,” Keith said, “Hunk. That kid who could hold his breath for a full minute”.  


“Mohammad?”  


“I never learnt his name,” Keith confessed and knelt down where they’d laid the plank and hammered the nails in in an identical fashion to how Shiro had the other planks.  


“Figures,” Lance replied, his own hammer in hand, starting on the other side, “You were always the weird loner kid”.  


Keith smashed his hammer down hard, hiding his sudden anger, “And you were the weird competitive kid”.  


“So you do remember me!” Lance said triumphantly.  


“Not even slightly,” Keith replied, taking small pleasure in Lance’s frustrated gasp he received in response. Keith hoisted another plank and soon Lance helped him carry it down the dock. They continued this way for a while, Lance starting minor conversations that quickly fizzled out. After almost two hours they took a step back, sweaty and tired, at their job; in front of them, practically gleaming, was a newly finished dock, safe and sturdy.  


“Christ,” Lance breathed out, “I never want to do that again”. He wiped his hand across his forehead with his glove before pulling the gloves off of each hand. He then proceeded to take off his shirt, revealing slightly-toned muscles. Keith determinedly looked away, refusing to find Lance’s body attractive, despite its fine qualities and subtle curves that caught the sun in just the right way.  


“It’s not over yet,” Keith said pointedly, moving away from Lance to lessen the chance of him seeing any more of Lance’s body, we’ve still got the shed to do”.  


“Come off it,” Lance groaned, “It must be nearly lunch by now”.  


Keith looked at his watch, “It’s half ten,” he said, savouring the yell of annoyance Lance let out in response. He trudged over to Keith and stared in at the shed with a sour look on his face and sweat dripping down his flawless chest. Keith again looked away, his face breaking out into a blush. He suspected if Lance saw him staring he’d never hear the end of it, especially as Lance clearly was not into men like Keith was-he’d attempted to hit on Allura twice so far, getting hit in response both times.  


“I say we take all of this out, split it into piles and then put it back in,” Keith stated, gesturing to the large pile of apparatus in the corner, “Obviously we start with the canoes”.  


“Whatevs,” Lance muttered, flopping onto the ground, “I’mma take a break first”.  


Keith scowled, “C’mon, we finish this then we can have as long of a break as we want”.  


“Uh, no, we can’t, Shiro’ll have some other job for us to do,” he stretched, “I’m takin’ a break while I still can”.  


Keith muttered to himself and began to clear out the shed himself, not allowing himself to look out in Lance’s direction; it was hard, tedious work moving in and out of the shed. Once everything was out, save for the canoes which Keith had managed to lift onto shelves within, Lance got up-which is to say once the hardest of the work was complete Lance decided to help.  


The objects were sorted into categories and stored in plastic boxes on shelves; after another hour the job was done, and the shed was neat. The entire area seemed far better than Keith had ever seen it; kept and clean and new.  


Lance stretched again once they’d finished, swung his shirt over his shoulder and began a leisurely stroll back to the main area of the camp, leaving Keith alone to lock up the shed. He grumbled to himself as he finished up and turned from the shed grumpily.  


“You shouldn’t let him treat you like that,” a voice said from above him and Keith froze, almost brandishing the set of keys as a weapon, “I’m up here,” the voice said from the trees behind the shed. A small, short haired boy in glasses sat on a branch, swinging his legs from under him, “Hi,” his said.  


“Hi?” Keith replied, waving up at the child, “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing here?”  


The boy frowned, “This is camp right?”  


“Yeah”.  


“I’m here for the camp”.  


This time Keith frowned, “It doesn’t start until tomorrow though”.  


“My parents always send me up early, just to get rid of me, so I hang around in the forest until everyone else turns up”.  


Keith wished he’d had that idea, “You wanna come back to the rest of the camp with me?” he offered, “I think we’re gonna have lunch soon”.  


The boy shook his head, “No, I’m good. I have peanuts in my backpack”.  


Keith knew he shouldn’t let the boy stay where he was but he was too far up the tree for Keith to get to him and he knew first-hand how much he would dislike the old staff ordering him around, “Okay,” he called up to the boy, “Just…be careful okay? If you get hurt I’m the one who gets in trouble for it”.  


The boy nodded, “I won’t tell anyone I talked to you,” he offered, “My name is Pidge by the way”.  


“I’m Keith. I’m the…” Keith paused unsure of what to call himself-none of the staff had been given ranks and, of all the jobs assigned, he had the vaguest. Allura would probably be called the assistant manager or something but what was he?  


“You look like a knight,” Pidge said, filling the pause, “Your hair. I used to have a book on knights and they all had that haircut. My favourite was the paladins, they had the coolest armour”.  


Keith smiled, “I’m the red paladin,” he said, “If you need anything, feel free to come into camp to ask for it, okay?” Pidge nodded and climbed further up the tree, out of Keith’s sight. For a moment he wanted to follow him but he knew he had to try to catch up to Lance to avoid suspicion. With one last apprehensive look at where he’d last seen Pidge, Keith turned and walked back to the camp.  


At the centre of the semi-circle of cabins, around the fire pit, the others all sat cooling off from a hard day’s work. Shiro and Coran were both covered in muck and Hunk and Allura’s shirts were both soaked through with either water or sweat. Shiro was handing out small plastic bottles of water to each of them and Keith sat down on a log next to Hunk, taking a bottle of water when offered and gulping it all down in one.  


“You wouldn’t believe some of the things growing in those cabins,” Coran told them, “I found six different types of mushroom! Six!”  


“If any of you four are done we’d love some help, it’s turning out to be a harder job than I’d imagined”.  


Lance shot Keith a look that seemed to say ‘I Told You So’ before raising his hand and saying, “I’m done over at the lake, I could help”.  


“Blue you have no idea what you’re in for!” Coran said, his voice a mix between a laugh and a screech, “There’s things in there that’ll make you wet yourself in fear!”  


“I’ll cope,” Lance assured him. They all talked amongst themselves for a while before Hunk headed off to the kitchens to fetch them some lunch. He returned with six thermoses of soup which he distributed to each of them. It tasted of leeks and potato.  


Soon after that too Hunk left again, this time with Allura with him, to continue lugging heavy supplies across the camp. Coran then dragged Lance off to clean with him, whilst Lance struggled, leaving Shiro and Keith alone to finish their soup. Any other day Keith would say it was too hot for soup but somehow Hunk’s soup seemed just right.  


“How was working the docks with Lance?” Shiro said after a while, breaking the silence.  


“Fine I guess,” Keith said, his mind still thinking about Pidge out in the woods alone, “Not the best person to help out but good enough I guess”.  


“I remember you,” Shiro said, his tone flat, showing only the smallest hint of emotion, “You probably don’t remember me, but I do you. Nine years ago, my last year here as a kid, I stopped you from being picked on by some of the other kids”.  


“I remember,” Keith replied, staring at the ground and the fire pit and anywhere which wasn’t Shiro, “They were trying to cut my hair”.  


“You’re the reason I’m trying to fix this place,” Shiro stated, “I remember seeing you there, surrounded by older boys, and I thought ‘No kid should have to go to a place like this’. I told myself that one day I would come back here and make this somewhere children would look forward to going to all year long”.  


“Why not just let the place rot?” Keith said bitterly, the venom in his voice surprising him, “Why bother coming back to this hell?”  


Shiro laughed, “Why did you?” he asked and Keith held back his answer, “I felt like I wasn’t done here”.  


Keith felt done here-he felt like the camp should have been closed years ago, left to fall apart and for nature to reclaim it, to make the land hers again. He didn’t want to tell Shiro he hadn’t applied for the job willingly despite how much he wanted to, “Where should I start cleaning?” Keith said, changing the subject, “I finished at the lake”.  


“Try the cabin on the far end,” Shiro told him, “Work your way to the centre from there”.  


Keith nodded and threw Shiro the keys he’d taken from the lakeside before starting his way toward the furthest cabin. It was identical to its seven brothers; a stone foundation with the rest of it made out of logs, the floor, the roof, the walls, even the window frames. The glass of the windows was obviously freshly replaced as for as long as Keith could remember the frames held no glass, it having been shattered years ago and left empty. The veranda of the cabin had a bucket of water, a mop, a broom and several other cleaning items with them sitting against each other. Keith grabbed the duster and pushed the door open.  


It was just as broken down as Keith remembered; the interior was identical to the staff cabin save for the fact that the furniture was of a far lower quality. Keith held his breath and began his cleaning. It was foul, hard work that made Keith gag every time he thought about what he was doing, the age of the messes and contents of being all too familiar to him. He kept his mind occupied by the thought that the money and experience he would make over the summer would give him the ability to both leave home for a small apartment outside the city and a job that could support him on his own. From there he’d be free of his foster-parents and could start going to a Community College to get some form of education to get a better job.  


He started fantasizing over how different his life would be if he’d never been in the system of foster parents and adoption agencies; in his head he imagined his parents being rich enough to give him whatever he desired and famous enough that boys and girls alike would hound after him just to kept a glimpse at their stardom.  


Keith knew that it was all bull-he knew that they would be a poor Korean couple who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, have him and so gave him up without even a name. When he was four his orphanage let him name himself and he chose to be Pikachu—Naruto Eggman.  


He later changed his name to Keith.  


A few hours later Keith breathed in the smell of the cabin; if you ignored the creaky beds and the drip of a broken faucet in the bathroom one could imagine the cabin to be pleasant. Pleased with his work Keith walked outside and found Allura and Hunk sitting at the fire pit conversing. In the cabin next to his, Keith could see Lance, Shiro and Coran working together to finish cleaning. They seemed efficient and organised, which Keith found to be impressive with Lance working with them.  


Keith walked down to the fire pit and sat on a log close to Hunk and Allura but no so close they’d be forced to have to include Keith in their conversation. As soon as Keith sat on the log Hunk shouted, “Eighteen,” at him. Keith stared blankly.  


“What?”  


“You’re eighteen, right?” Hunk said excitedly. Keith nodded and he laughed, “I knew it, you’re that boy who I used to feed the squirrels with”.  


Keith had almost forgotten about that, “Yeah, that was me”.  


“Which means Lance was that kid who was super competitive and Shiro was the dreamy, popular guy who kept coming to camp even though he was sixteen”. Keith felt his face burn at that comment, thinking about how strange it was coming to camp once he was sixteen and seventeen. He would have given anything to have got to stay at home with his friends and not be forced into attending the camp.  


“I haven’t seen any squirrels around,” Keith said lamely, “I was kind of hoping there’d be more than there used to be. We could get Coran to train them for us”.  


Allura laughed a loud snicker and Keith felt proud that he’d managed to get a laugh out of her; he then chided himself mentally for making assumptions on her despite not having a conversation with her yet. They talked amongst each other for a while until Lance, Shiro and Coran left their cabin, equally covered in dirt and grime as Keith was. Lance was again wearing his shirt which Keith hated himself for being disappointed at.  


Shiro dropped down onto a log and breathed out a sigh of relief; he flexed his prosthetic arm and breathed heavily for a moment, “We did good today team,” he said eventually,  sounding tired yet content, “We’ve got a couple hours until it’ll be dinner time. You can all do whatever you want until then, the camp is yours,” Shiro stood up, “I’m going to go swimming in the lake”.  


Shiro walked away from the group toward the staff cabin and they all watched him until he was out of sight, “Hardworking fellow isn’t he,” Coran said as he left their view, “Doesn’t let himself take a break”.  


“Hey Hunk, I bet you I can climb that tree faster than you can,” Lance said suddenly, pointing over at a wide oak tree sitting on the edge of their clearing.  


“You’re on,” Hunk grinned and bolted towards the tree, Lance chasing after him claiming his head-start to be unfair. Coran chased after the two of them quickly after, warning them that he would allow no cheating in his camp. Keith was left alone sitting awkwardly with Allura at the fire pit.  


The sat in silence for a while before Keith finally broke the silence, “You’re the same age as Shiro aren’t you?”  


Allura’s cheeks turned red, “You don’t talk to girls often do you?” she responded, her voice polite but her words clearly a challenge.  


“More than a talk to guys,” Keith replied, shifting his foot in the dirt, “Girls are always faster to accept you than guys are. They don’t act like they have some expectation to live up to, and the girls I know never take any shit from men”.  


Allura nodded, “They sound smart,” she stated.  


“They would never let Lance get away with any of the crap he does,” Keith said, not really knowing what he was saying, “No matter how cute he is, they’d have chewed him up and spat him out by now”.  


“You think he’s cute?” Allura frowned and before Keith could respond indignantly to vehemently deny that Coran shouted to them.  


“We need a ladder,” he called, “Yellow is stuck!”  


Allura sighed, “There’s a ladder in one of the store rooms,” she muttered, “I’ll go get it”. Keith sat alone at the fire pit as she wandered off before walking toward where Coran stood at the bottom of the tree.  


“Don’t tell Allura this but Yellow isn’t really stuck at all,” Coran whispered to Keith loudly, to the point where Lance heard it from above and audibly scowled, “Blue is trapped up there but doesn’t want anyone else to know”.  


Keith frowned, “Then why are you telling me?” he asked.  


“Because he’s been rude to you constantly and it amuses me to do so,” Coran said simply. Keith made a mental note not to dismiss Coran ever again just because of his eccentric personality and unusual tastes. He considered apologising for making fun of him to Allura but decided against it; what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Soon Allura came into the clearing carrying a long ladder, “Ah, princess, you’re back,” Coran smiled which received a dirty look in response.  


Allura scowled, “Don’t call me princess,” she told the man and he shook his head.  


“That’s a no-can-do I’m afraid,” he said sadly, “You don’t have a team and our boss is already king, so you have to be princess”.  


Allura muttered to herself and Keith broke the tension, “I think we should tell Shiro that he got himself stuck up there”.  


Allura’s eyes widened, “That’s terrible!” she cried, “Why on Earth would you make Hunk seem so immature and incapable?”  


“I mean Lance,” Keith said plainly and Allura’s expression softened.  


“Oh yes, definitely, Shiro needs to know about his incapability”.  


Keith grinned and turned back to stare at Hunk and Lance in the tree as Allura leant the tall ladder against the trunk. Hunk swiftly pulled himself from the tree and slid down the ladder confidently. Allura began to move the ladder away and Lance’s expression turned to one of worry before Allura grinned and pushed it back against the tree.  


Keith definitely liked Allura.  


Eventually, with Lance down from the tree, the five of them sat is the clearing and talked to each other, laughing and grinning for hours. Lance would often make comments at Keith’s expense and, equally, Keith made them at his. At one point Keith thought he saw Pidge off in the distance watching; he considered gesturing for Pidge to join them but he blinked and the boy was gone.  


After a little over an hour Shiro joined them, his hair clinging to his head and a towel wrapped around him. They all made their way back to their cabin after that, separating into pairs as they walked. Keith found himself at the front of the pack talking to Hunk, who was babbling on about robotics and the future developments that could be made with them. Keith felt the topic to be boring but with Hunk speaking it seemed interesting, Hunk’s genuine interest and dazzling words sparking it to life.  


Once indoors Shiro asked, or rather ordered politely, that they all finish reading the information packets he’d given them. Lance pulled his phone out, and Hunk leant him a pair of speakers, and they listened to music as they read silently, but contently. When it was time for them to eat they made their way to the mess hall and Hunk unfroze them some more of his curry. Coran attempted to add a mushroom to the dish he’d found in the cabins but Shiro stopped him before he could poison them.  


On the way back to the rooms Keith walked with Lance and the two of them engaged in, at the beginning at least, forced conversation. They went through about seven minutes before Keith, despite himself, insulted Lance.  


It was progress.  


That night as Keith lay in bed he found himself again wandering about his future at the camp and about Pidge out in the forest alone; was it irresponsible of him to have not forced him back to the cabin with them? The boy claimed to have done it in the past, and anyone who had survived the conditions of the camp before Shiro took over would definitely be able to handle a night in the woods. Still Keith hoped that the boy was okay, wherever he was, and as he drifted to sleep his first thought was of what he’d called himself.  


_A paladin…_  
  



	3. The First Day

Unlike the previous morning, when Shiro woke them all Keith felt a damn sight further from peaceful; his eyes were crusty and every muscle in his body ached from the past day’s labour. His watch read the time to be a full hour earlier than yesterday’s awakening too, and Keith felt it. He began to crave coffee, a drink he’d never truly appreciated, but now felt could help him greatly.

The five of them groaned their way out of bed as Shiro announced that he would be going on a quick jog around the lake to wake himself up proper; he asked if anyone wanted to join him and Keith felt that he might be teasing them if he wasn’t such a genuinely honest and kind man.

These kids are going to eat him alive Keith thought.

Before he knew it Keith was in the mess hall eating a bowl of cornflakes and feeling dishevelled and tired. His coffee did nothing to hold back his yearning for sleep and, if anything, made him feel more bitter. _Get used to coffee_ Shiro had said. He hadn’t been kidding.

Soon Shiro joined them, his hair moist with sweat and his face covered with a smile. He sat down with them and began explaining the day’s plans to them; in around two hours the campers would arrive. Their job was to check the facilities one more time quickly to make sure nothing was amiss and, if it was, fix it before anyone could get hurt.

Shiro sent them all off individually; Keith was given the woodland activity area to search and Keith set out immediately, a thermos of coffee from Hunk in hand. Keith was glad to get to have that area; he was hoping Pidge would be resting there, or nearby, so he could talk to the boy one more time before he joined all the other campers. Anyone who arrived early to, what would normally be, a hellish summer camp would have friends few and far between.

The trail to that section of the woods was a thick path opposite that to the welcoming cabin, by the entrance. From its start Keith could see the empty gravel parking area that in just a few hours would be full of parents hugging their kids goodbye and buses of glum children expecting a horrendous summer of old men, gruel and dangerous living conditions. They were definitely in for a surprise on those three details but whether they’d enjoy their time was yet to be seen.

Keith walked down the trail and flicked his tired, hazy eyes around for any sign of anything being out of place-the area he was moving towards was a good six minute walk away and where he’d most likely be forced to spend his time in orchestrating different activities, such as Archery, which he’d never truly mastered; and wilderness training, which in the past had involved being forced to eat plants and learning to prepare food for the old men to eat.

“Pidge,” Keith called out quietly, in case one of the others (probably Lance) had tried following him down the trail. After a moment of silence he called out again, louder: “Pidge”. He received no answer and continued down the trail-nothing was amiss.

Keith reached the large, open clearing of the woodland activities area and found it the most surprisingly different area of the entire camp. What had once been a pit of weeds, broken apparatus, bloodstains, unsafe earth and litter was now a beautiful, well-stocked children’s paradise. There were seats carved out of log, most likely by hand; zip-wires going from the three large trees at the three corners of the clearing, a proper archery range leading in the woods, a far flatter area and even a greenhouse full of (as far as Keith could tell from the distance) tomato plants.

Shiro really wanted the kids to have a good time here.

Keith poked around the area, more for the sake of exploration than to look for dangerous situations, and found even more surprises; one of the trees had had small hand-holes carved into it for climbing and besides the greenhouse was equipment for abseiling that. It must have cost a fortune to have all this, even if it was clearly mostly constructed by Shiro’s hand-literally one hand as Keith doubted any form of modern prosthetic was sophisticated enough to allow a person to achieve all this.

A face screamed at Lance from inside the greenhouse and Keith screamed back, jumping away from it and slipping on a patch of loose dirt and falling to the floor in a heap. Pidge laughed at him from inside the greenhouse, his clothes different to the ones Keith had encountered him in the day before. Grumbling, Keith pulled himself to his feet and walked moodily to Pidge, whom was exiting the greenhouse.

“That wasn’t funny,” he scolded the boy, who in return just pushed up his glasses and grinned.

“It was pretty funny,” Pidge stated and Keith hated that he agreed with him-it would have been hilarious to watch. He silently thanked whatever god existed that Lance hadn’t been there to watch it happen, “What time is it?” Pidge asked absent-mindedly.

“Almost time for the others to get here,” Keith muttered, despite knowing in some part of him that it was probably only around ten past seven-Pidge too seemed to notice this.

“Not yet,” he shrugged, “I’m gonna do my own thing for a bit longer, kill some time”.

“How old are you?” Keith blurted out, not knowing from where his question had stemmed-it hadn’t occurred to him in his thinking, yet once he’d spoken the words Keith felt some form of weight leave him.

“Fourteen,” Pidge replied wearily, his eyes narrowing, as if used to the dull question and clearly noticing Keith’s surprised look “How old are you?”

“Eighteen”.

They stared at each other, neither blinking, a tense silence forming between them. Keith tried to think of something he would say that could end their standoff but nothing sprung to mind.

“I’m going to go now,” Pidge said slowly, pulling his bag from inside a pot in the beside the greenhouse door, “Don’t tell the other paladins I was here”.  
  
_Paladins._

 Pidge slowly moved away, barely taking his eyes off of Keith, the way a cat stares at another predator, an understanding that cannot be mistaken for friendship As Pidge faded into the woodland Keith almost wanted to call out and say he was sorry, but he held himself back.

Keith wandered back to the others, his head a mess of conflicting thoughts about Pidge, with other issues butting to the front of his mind, begging to be granted centre stage for Keith’s concern; dealing with Lance, looking after the children, not finishing his training manuals, his small yet undeniable attraction to Shiro. Keith brooded on these topics for a while, his long, dark hair falling in front of his eyes gloomily.

“Hey Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way, wait up,” an annoying voice called from behind him, sprouting out the nonsense words as quickly as one would breathe, although it was clear as he sprouted his gibberish Lance hadn’t taken in a single breath.

Keith scowled, “What the hell does that even mean?” he muttered and Lance grinned, rushing up the path toward the woodland area to wrap an arm around Keith’s neck in a gesture that they were most definitely _not_ close enough to perform.

“You’ll figure it out eventually My Immortal,” Lance smiled and Keith scowl deepened at the nickname-he didn’t know what it meant but he disliked it immensely. He wasn’t Lance’s anything, and immortal most definitely was not a noun. Keith slipped out from under Lance’s arm and walked alongside him, arms folded.

“Why did you come down here?” Keith asked gruffly, disliking any time with Lance greatly-it’d been less than two days and already he had developed hatred for a person; new record.

“I was checking out front to see if any kids had turned up,” Lane said and Keith could practically hear him stretch his arms behind his head, “And then I saw you all emo down there and thought I should cheer you up-we can’t have you being all Nico di Angelo to those kids”.

“I don’t understand your reference but it sounds obnoxious,” Keith said flatly. Behind him Lance scoffed.

“You need to know this stuff to relate to the kids Keith, you can’t learn this stuff from that stuff Shiro gave us”.

“How would you know,” Keith retorted, “You haven’t even read them”.

Lance grumbled behind Keith and he felt a slight twitch of a smile at the corners of his mouth-surprisingly Lance had managed to cheer him up.

At the campfire at the centre of the camp Keith was greeted to the, now familiar, sight of the remaining staff members sitting on logs around the fire pit.  Shiro was obviously prepping himself for a pep-talk as he sat apart from Coran, Allura and Hunk who all looked nervous. Upon seeing Keith and Lance approaching Shiro got up and stood in front of them, Keith and Lance sitting on opposite ends of the log the others had already claimed.

“Hunk tells me the kitchen is tidy and ready for campers,” Shiro started, his body showing signs that he was going to be speaking for a while, “And Coran says each of the cabins is stocked and ready for kids to sleep. Allura checked the storage sheds and they’re all firmly locked unless you have a key, which you five will find in these”. From the fire pit Shiro hoisted up a set of five bags, slightly smeared in ash from past fires but otherwise looking entirely new. He handed them out to each of them and immediately Coran and Lance dug into the bag to see what treasures were being bestowed upon them, whilst Hunk, Allura and Keith continued to listen to Shiro.

“Any and all equipment I could think of you needing whilst working at any point is in there,” said Shiro professionally, “Keys, a compass, small first aid kit, a whistle-that sort of thing. Now back to important things,” Shiro began to pace back and forth, “Once the kids get here you’ll need to try to keep the majority of them here, or to go to one of the toilets at the edge of the clearing. They’re gonna be nervous if they’re first timers, apprehensive if they’re experienced and, in general, upset about being here. Your job is to try to, at least by the end of today, see that camp is going to be fun. If a single camper looks upset you can’t single them out but as a whole try to appeal to them all. I don’t really know what else I can say”.

A question that had been rolling over Keith’s mind since seeing Pidge yesterday pushed itself to the front of his thoughts and he raised his hand, “What’s our official job title?” he asked before he could stop himself, “If a kid, or a parent even, asks what our job is what do we say?”

Shiro looked at Keith blankly, “I don’t really know. I know in the past we’d all you a councillor but after what the old councillors acted like…”

“How about paladins?” Keith blurted out, hating every part of his being-no way would Lance let this one go, and Shiro would definitely think he was being strange.

“That actually sounds great,” Shiro said in an almost relieved sounding voice, “You should all have different names of job for the smaller kids though, something they can remember easily”.

“How about our team colours?” Hunk suggested, “That way all they have to do is look at us and they’ll know which one we are”.

“That sounds good for you four,” Allura said plainly, “But what about myself and Shiro? The kids won’t know what to call us”.

“I know when I’d want to call you,” Lance purred to Allura and received two kicks, one from Allura herself and one from Hunk.

Shiro continued as if Lance had said nothing, “Allura can be pink on account of her earrings,” he said, “And I guess I’ll be white because of my hair”.

No one seemed to object or be at all bothered by the new name, only Lance showing any discomfort by holding his ankle soothingly. Shiro dispersed them to different sections of the camp to wait for kids to arrive, placing Lance, Hunk and Keith at the gate most likely as they were his youngest employees.

 Around half an hour later, an hour and fifteen minutes before anyone was due to arrive, a car pulled up and immediately dropped off two twins, one a boy, one a girl, with striking mint-green hair. The parents apologised hastily before quickly getting back in their car and driving off quickly with no further explanation than ‘The stove!’ Hunk immediately took charge of the children, darting from where he’d stood to guide them into the camp. The twins, looking to be maybe eleven, seemed surprised and relieved that someone as young as Hunk would be looking after them rather than an old man with more wrinkles than grandchildren of his own.

A long while later a small bus pulled up, ten minutes before it was due, and a stream of kids were let off, each with bags and many with large hats and surprise in their eyes that the people greeting them weren’t old-it seemed to be a theme amongst them. Keith noticed Pidge in amongst the group, who just winked at him as he walked past, all tension from their earlier encounter evidently forgotten. Lance led the kids in further and immediately a laugh arose from the crowd.

Things continued in this fashion for a while, a paladin stepping in every time Keith thought he’d have a chance to leave gate duty to talk to some of the campers. The oldest Keith managed to notice, based off of his guess of their ages at least, was fifteen, whilst plenty of eight year olds had come making that their youngest age for a camper. By the end of arrivals around forty-one campers had come to stay with them.

The kids were all gathered at the clearing in front of the cabins with starry eyed expressions at their surrounds, either amazed at how beautiful the woods were or gawking at the improved conditions from the year before. Shiro stood behind the fire pit on top of a box that he’d obviously brought out just for a makeshift podium. He cleared his throat loudly and some of the older campers went quiet, although many of the eight year olds kept talking as if noticing nothing-eventually they were shushed and a calm spread throughout the campers.

“Welcome,” Shiro smiled brightly to the crowd and immediately whispers spread out from campers, young and old. Keith caught some of them (‘He’s pretty’, ‘Is he wearing makeup’, ‘Cool arm’) but most of the words spoken were too quiet to be audible. Shiro continued, “Many of you, I expect, have been here before. You will not have fond memories of the camp-I know I don’t,” he laughed and the crowd continued to stare at him, only one confused ten year old joining in, “But rest assured you will enjoy your time here far more than you have in the past.

“You’re going to all sleep in these buildings here,” Shiro said simply, his words slowing as if he’d realised he was in fact talking to a group of children, not adults, “And you will have to share with some other people, but in a fun way, like a sleepover!” Keith thought Shiro’s sudden change to be a little condescending but it seemed to work amongst the younger campers who whispered excitedly, “The eight buildings are all in four teams too! We’re gonna put you in the teams and at the end of your summer there’s gonna be a big contest where you all play and the winner gets a prize”.

Despite himself Keith felt a twinge of desire for the prize, not even realising it existed himself until Shiro mentioned it-a small part of him wanted his team to win just to rub it in Lance’s face, “Now we’re gonna put you on the teams okay?” Shiro smiled and Allura stepped forward. One of the girls in the crowd said loudly, ‘She’s pretty, I wanna be on her team!’

“The princess doesn’t have a team I’m afraid,” Coran said loudly, having heard the girls comment. Immediately a whisper spread amongst the crowd from the smaller girls.

“She’s a princess!” one said.

“Do you think the woods are her magic kingdom?”

“I wanna marry her so I can be a princess too!”

Keith grinned to himself-this was obviously going to be a nickname that stuck with her. Allura glared at Coran silently and began giving out random envelopes to each camper. To some of the girls she told them she was “Bestowing it,” to them and Keith had to admit, it was a smart trick to get them to keep whichever team they ended up on.

Once Allura left the crowd, few envelopes left in hand, Shiro told the campers to open them and separate into groups based on what colour they had. The older campers seemed sullen and dismissive of their team, walking over to whichever paladin that they happened to have. The younger children however attempted to swap cards, which was immediately stopped by Allura, telling them that the cards changed colour magically depending on where they belong. One of the children in Hunk’s crowd audibly moaned about being ‘A Hufflepuff’ which caused a ripple of laughter amongst them.

Many of the boys seemed sad they weren’t on Shiro’s team.

Keith looked over his crowd-the girl of the two mint haired twins was in his group, along with three small girls the oldest seeming to be at eleven and the youngest at eight. There was also four boys, one of whom was a sullen teenager with long, black hair.

Keith could relate.

“From now one, these are your family,” Shiro said proudly, “Your team leader, or Paladin, is the person you’ll talk to if you have any problems”. Keith heard a loud snort in the yellow team and quickly identified it to be coming from Pidge-figures he’d be the one laughing at the name, it was thanks to him they had it.

“That team has nine people!” a girl with red hair in Lance’s team shouted, pointing at Hunk’s group, “No fair!”

“Hey, yeah,” Lance complained, “That’s not fair at all!”

Soon the entirety of the blue team was complaining loudly, provoking the yellow team into pulling faces in response. Shiro sighed loudly, looking at Allura, Coran and Hunk for help.

“Maybe one of the members of the yellow team could be a staff helped?” Coran suggested hopelessly, “Another paladin so to speak”.

Shiro seemed to like the idea, as did the yellow team-most of the team began to volunteer themselves forward, including Pidge.

“Why do _they_ get to be the special helper,” the same red haired girl scowled, “It’s not fair!”

Lance opened his mouth to agree with the girl again but Shiro shot him a glare, “Sometimes different rewards get given to different people just because they have they randomly have a different place in the world to you,” Lance told the red haired girl, “It’s called capitalism”.

Shiro sighed loudly but the girl, along with the rest of the campers, seemed to find the answer satisfactory.

“Okay Hunk, which camper do you want to be a junior paladin?” Shiro said exasperated-if one encounter with children and Lance like this tired him out he’d be in for a long summer.

“Oh man,” said Hunk as if in shock, “I don’t even know, they’re all so small and cute and cool I want them all to be on my team”.

The crowd crowded him, eager faces all looking up at Hunk, save for Pidge whose face looked as if he were about to sneeze, when suddenly Pidge sneezed. A sound like a kitten coughing echoed through the clearing and Pidge turned bright red.

“I choose him, I want him,” Hunk said immediately, pointing at Pidge and looking up at Shiro the way a child would a parent in a toy store.

Pidge nervously moved away from the crowd that was the yellow team and shuffled toward Shiro who smiled at him kindly and gestured for him to stand next to him on the opposite side from Allura. Pidge couldn’t have been half Shiro’s size, and it was obvious, but he wore a look that, despite how awkward he looked, challenged anyone to tease him.

“I think it’s time I handed you over to your paladins,” Shiro grinned, a mischievous twinkle in his eye, “They’ll show you your rooms and around the camp and when it’s time for dinner I’m sure they’ll take you to our dining area. And tonight,” Shiro’s eyes shone beautifully,” We’re having a campfire”.

A mixture of cheers and groans arose from many of the campers; Shiro whispered something to Pidge and headed off toward the staff cabin with Allura, leaving Coran, Hunk, Keith and Lance to look after the campers. Pidge trudged off towards the black team where Coran was organising his campers into a line starting with the tallest and ending in the shortest-Pidge was immediately sent to the end.

Keith cleared his throat, “So,” he said awkwardly, “Are you guys ready for a great summer?” he smiled lamely; the long haired boy teenager stared at Keith with a look that seemed to say ‘Really?’ Keith attempted to continue talking anyway, “These two cabins here,” he said, “Are for us,” he gestured to the two cabins on the far side of the semicircle, “The left one will be for boys, the right one is for girls. Do you want to drop off your bags inside or carry them around for the rest of the day? I, er, don’t know when we’ll be back here”.

Immediately the three smaller boys of the group pushed past Keith and ran up the creaky stairs into the cabin-the girl looking to be eleven moved hesitantly into the girls’ cabin, her memory of past summers obviously warning her of what would be found inside. She let out a small gasp of surprise as she opened the door, plainly not expecting the room to be so clean and well maintained. Keith felt his chest swell with pride, the memory of the foul task of cleaning it still fresh in his mind from the previous day.

The teenage boy kept his rucksack with him but otherwise every member of the red team put their bags at a bed they wanted within-the mint haired girl pushed another girl’s bag off of a bed to take it, hissing when the first girl tried to take it back. Keith thought he should step in but held back-these things were camp basics, if he intervened now not only would the mint haired girl hate him but the other girl would be picked on for needing defending.  He might ask Allura to help out in the future but for now this was a battle that would be best left unfought.

Keith led the red team to the first place he saw not yet occupied-the lake. It was a short walk through the woods, shorter for Keith running after the three small boys who couldn’t wait to get to where they were going. Already Keith felt his hair turn grey from having to deal with the trio-hopefully as time wore on they’d calm down.

Once at the lake Keith had them gather in a crowd, the boys pushing to the front and the teenager hanging back toward the back of the group, “This is Lake…Voltron,” he said, wishing he’d thought of what to say in advance, “It’s newly clean and you’re gonna have a lot of fun of it. There’s fishing and swimming and canoe races and we’ll teach you how to fish or swim or canoe if you don’t know how”.

The girls looked at the lake longingly, summer heat bearing down on them, and the boys stared at it in awe, clearly wanting to charge in and splash around and make as much noise as possible. Keith pressed on with his speech, “Wile we’re here and the others aren’t I thought we could all introduce ourselves with our names and one fact about ourselves,” Keith already knew he would have hated himself if he were them-this activity was one he would hate. Whenever a person asks you to tell a fact about yourself everything you know about yourself seems to disappear, like when a person asks what you want for dinner and suddenly every meal you’ve ever had goes out of your head, “For instance my name is Keith and I’m the red paladin. Would you like to start?” Keith asked lamely to the mint haired girl.

She looked up at him in distaste, “My name is Stephanie Shorthouse,” she said in a posh voice, “And I have a nearly identical twin brother”.

One of the boys stared at Stephanie in awe, “That’s so cool,” he gaped. He realised everyone was looking at him and Keith subtly prompted him to go next, “I’m Daniel Furnell,” he said quietly, clearly uncomfortable with everyone looking at him, “And I like monster trucks”.

Daniel quickly looked at the next person standing next to him, a smaller boy with a thick unibrow, “My name is Inan,” he grinned, “And I have asthma”. Keith made a quick mental note of the boy’s asthma before the girl next to him said quickly;

“My-name-is- Lucy-and-I-like-to-do-gardening,” the girl said as quickly as she could, staring down at her feet in embarrassment-Lucy was the girl that Stephanie had stolen the bed of and as such Keith felt he should show some form of support even if it wasn’t related to any hierarchy that was forming.

“You’re going to love our next stop,” Keith promised her, “We have a greenhouse for gardening, we have tomato plants all ready for growing there”.

Keith moved on to the third small boy who seemed to be practically bursting with need to speak, “I’m Nathan,” he said excitedly, “I love gardening too”.

Nathan practically bounced where he stood, his excitement none diminished for having said his words. The girl next to him seemed scared that he would accidentally reach lift-off from how fast he was moving.

The girl spoke, “I’m Wiki,” she said nervously, “My favourite band is My Seconds of Summer”. Stephanie looked at Wiki in disgust but beside that no one seemed to react to her-Keith hoped to God she didn’t have a CD with her, or an iPod.

“I’m Symi,” the final girl said, “And at home I have a hijab that has pearls on it”. The three boys at the front looked confused to what a hijab is, whilst Stephanie rolled her eyes in disbelief and Lucy whispered ‘That sounds so pretty!’

Keith looked at the teenage boy who had remained completely silent throughout the entire activity-he stared back at Keith challengingly, waiting for him to try to force him to admit any information. The teenager crumbled under Keith’s stare.

“I’m called Malcolm,” he muttered, “And I play guitar”. Lucy and Wiki and the three smaller boys stared in astonishment and Stephanie curled her lip.

“Right then,” Keith clapped, forcing a smile onto his lips, “Who wants to see the greenhouse?”

The day felt long from that point onwards; looking after seven children had turned out to be a more difficult job than he’d anticipated. The three small boys were easily excited and distracted, and the two of the girls, Symi and Lucy, had become fast friends. Stephanie stood alone scowling similar to Malcolm, who stood alone seeming to brood-Keith could relate. When the call for lunch finally came Keith couldn’t shepherd his kids into the mess hall fast enough. The black and yellow teams were already sitting at different tables and the red team quickly integrated into their ranks easily. Hunk stood in the kitchen and Keith started his way in to help out, cutting vegetables and cleaning knives for Hunk, who insisted he wear a hairnet, much to Keith’s dismay. He didn’t get to participate in any of the actual cooking, Hunk being far too excited about making the food perfect to let any interference distract him.

Once prepared, and once the blue team had walked in (the kids in Lance’s team seeming to be the happiest and on Lance’s shoulders a small boy was riding him and giggling) Keith prepared the serving tables. He felt like a dinner lady, and a grumpy one at that, but he did his best to smile as he served steaming soup and garlic bread and off-brand juice boxes. When first receiving their lunch no child seemed to look pleased by the food, least of all the mint haired twins, but once they tasted the soup many asked for more, and it was down to Keith to deny them their wishes.

Once every child had been seated and left in the hall to talk to their new friends and old Keith allowed himself a moment to survey the room-Coran and Lance were sitting with some of the campers at tables and filling the room with laughter and childish glee. The mint haired twins had taken a table for themselves and stared around the room judging any camper who would dare make eye contact. Keith spotted a total of three teenagers around the room, with Malcolm being the oldest by at least a year.

Once the trays had been cleaned and all the food had been stored Allura came into the room and announced, with a circle of small girls hanging on her every ‘royal’ word, that the first camp-wide competition would be held on the next Monday, seven days away. She also blessed a small, blonde haired girl and turned another into a magical guardian. They both squealed and ran back to their friends grinning ear to ear.

Allura called Coran, Hunk, Keith and Lance to gather round, forcing Lance to stop braiding a small boy’s hair. She looked worried.

“Shiro’s wants me to give you these,” she whispered nervously, giving each of the paladins a piece of paper, “He’s trying to get us to do a huge scavenger hunt with each of the teams having to find all of these objects by Monday”.

Keith looked down at the list and understood why Allura seemed nervous-there were a lot of dangerous items on the list like wild mushrooms, poison ivy and a lock of Lance’s hair.

“You guys can’t have my hair,” Lance said immediately, clutching his head immediately, “I need this hair, no one can have this hair”.

“Why is everything in Shiro’s handwriting except the last one?” Hunk said with quiet confusion dancing on his lips.

“Oh that was me,” said a small voice from next to Allura, “I thought it would be funny”.

Pidge’s eyes twinkled mischievously and he stared at Keith knowingly-Pidge was definitely Keith’s favourite camper.

“Wait so do we have to get Lance’s hair?” Hunk asked, eying Lance’s hair eagerly. Somehow Coran had already acquired scissors and his hand was slowly rising towards Lance’s head, completely unnoticed except by Keith.

Allura pretended to think for a moment and shook her head, “No, I suppose not,” she said and Lance sighed in relief. Coran’s eyes widened and he immediately began to panic, holding a clump of Lance’s hair in his hands. He shoved it into his pocket and whistled innocently, drawing looks from the rest of the staff, “Just try to be careful when you get some of this stuff, if any of the campers get hurt too badly it could close the camp”.

“Kids have been hurt at this camp for the last thirty years,” Keith stated, “Why should the parents care now?”

“Because now we don’t have a rich old white man in charge,” Allura scowled, “We have less money and an entirely new staff”.

A small girl launched herself at Lance suddenly causing him to stumble and laugh. She ran away suddenly and Lance s=chased her, grinning the same grin as the rest of his team.

“If anyone gets hurt it’s gonna be one of his,” Pidge noted and the rest of them nodded in solemn agreement.

Once dismissed Keith took his team out to the fire pit area again, the other three groups heading off to the woodland area and the lake to begin telling them about the scavenger hunt-Keith passed around the list and they all stared at it in turn, their reactions a mix of excitement, confusion and disinterest.

“Some of this stuff can be painful,” Keith said carefully, “Don’t get any of the stuff yourself. Tell me if you find it and I’ll grab it for you”.

“You can’t do that!” Daniel cried, “It’s not yours if we find it, then you’ll win everything and we’ll win nothing!”

Keith shook his head, “You don’t win this on your own,” he smiled softly, disliking how much forced smiling he’d done already that day, “We’re a team. We have to find this stuff together and then we all win,” he thought for a moment for a way he could motivate the more self-centred members of the group ( _read: Stephanie_ ), “If you find it though then you’ll win a…sticker!”

The group seemed content with this, even Malcolm, who seemed uncharacteristically interested in the hunt. Keith made a mental note to talk to him later about it, hoping he could draw the boy out of his shell slightly.

“For now though we’re gonna start out with the most basic wilderness survival skill,” Keith smiled, “We’re gonna make a fire”.

Keith sent out his group to find dry sticks and leaves and, coming of nowhere, Pidge started talking to Keith, making him jump, “You have no idea how to make a fire do you,” he asked and Keith hung his head in shame.

“Do you?” he asked dejectedly.

Pidge nodded, “Let me lead the group for a bit, you need a break,” before Keith could object Pidge said, “Tell them I’m the Green Paladin. I’ve been camping in the woods alone for years; I know how to make fires”.

Keith grumbled in agreement and, once his group returned, Pidge began coaching them on how to create sparks with flint and the proper shape for a fire. Stephanie looked as if she were holding back comments about Pidge running the session but she remained silent.

After almost three hours of coaching, every single member of the red team could create a strong campfire and knew exactly how to find dry sticks to burn, even Stephanie. Around this point the other teams were coming back to the centre and Shiro had stood proudly watching from a distance the red team working. As the other teams came to sit around the fire pit on the many logs provided he stood on a stump that was taking up the place where his box had been earlier that day.

Keith absent-mindedly wondered if he’d moved the log there himself or asked Allura or Pidge to move it there for his speeches.

“I hope you’ve all had a great first day,” Shiro smiled over the assembled campers-Keith and the other paladins, including Pidge, all moved to stand with Shiro, “Hopefully the rest of your time here will be even better than today. Now if Hunk and Keith wouldn’t mind, I think we’re all hungry for more dinner, and then we’re having,” he paused for dramatic effect like the professional public speaker he thought he was, “S’mores”.

Keith and Hunk spent almost forty minutes cooking in the empty mess hall and kitchen, Hunk’s perfectionism and excitement still strong.

He still forced Keith to wear a hairnet.

Keith’s stomach grumbled in envy of the campers as they worked, feeling very aware he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Every time he attempted to stealthily eat something Hunk would catch and scold him.

After, carefully, carrying out forty one bowls of food for the campers and carefully carrying them back to the kitchen to be washed, the group campfire was built. Shiro asked the red team to build it and they all worked together to build a bonfire-Pidge looked proudly onto his students as they toiled and Keith felt a stir of the same emotion too.

Shiro handed out sticks with marshmallows and biscuits, clearly having learnt everything he knew about s’mores from movies about summer camps-granted the same held true for Keith, as the old men who used to run Camp Voltron would never give out a treat like s’mores, but even so he knew the mess this would create.

Half an hour into the mess Shiro’s eyes gained a mischievous glint and Keith inwardly groaned-the camp director suggested a sing along and Keith wanted to slap him for it. Across the fire where Lance sat, children hugging him on both sides, Keith could see Lance’s face light up with glee. Pidge seemed worried by the news and Hunk didn’t react. Coran clapped his hands happily.

“Perhaps we could sing something traditional, like Kumbya,” Coran suggested, “Or She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain?”

Shiro agreed to his plan and started up the songs himself, encouraging the others to join in. Lance and Coran happily sang, as did Hunk, and Allura did so begrudgingly.  Many of the smaller children immediately sang, or at least made noises if they didn’t know the lyrics. Keith remained obstinately quiet, hating singing in public places.

Eventually Shiro had the entire camp singing along with him, his joy being contagious. Keith sang quietly enough that no one would hear him and Lance sang loudly enough that nobody couldn’t-he wasn’t bad thankfully and his voice even made songs like ‘Yellow Submarine’ seem not unpleasant. By the end of it everyone seemed in high spirits which Shiro took as a point to send everyone to bed, to end the day on a high note as he put it.

Pidge attempted to stay with the rest of the staff as the campers went to their cabins but Shiro ushered him toward the yellow huts-Pidge hesitated before walking into the boys one, looking over at the girls’ for a moment, but walked in begrudgingly eventually.

“Good work today team,” Shiro sighed, falling down onto a log behind which the bonfire still roared with heat, “One day down”.

“Can we eat yet?” Lance moaned, “All I’ve had today is cereal and s’mores. Lance needs spicy food and milk”.

Hunk immediately ran to the mess hall wordlessly, evidently wanting food just as much as the rest of them. Keith sat down with Shiro and the other man wrapped his prosthetic arm around him, “I think if every day goes on like today we should manage”.

Keith nodded but Allura looked uncertain, “We mustn’t get ahead of ourselves,” she said simply, “If we relax too much someone might get hurt”.

“Speaking of which,” Coran started, “We may have a problem with the scavenger hunt. When you ordered us to make sure the camp was safe I may have dug up and removed all the poison ivy I could find”.

Shiro shook his head, “I know one place where there’s still some, I checked it while you were all having lunch”. Lance and Coran immediately opened their mouths to ask where but Shiro stopped them before they could, “I’m not gonna help any of you find it. No team gets special treatment”.

Hunk returned with six bowls of curry and they all wolfed it down fast. By the end of their meal they all felt full and content, although tired and aching from their hard work.

“Okay you four,” Shiro said to them all, save Allura, “Go check your team cabins make sure they’re all getting some sleep, then go to bed. I’ll take first watch”. They nodded and stared toward the cabins, again save Allura who immediately set off to the staff cabin. Keith checked the girl’s cabin and saw everything to be in order-on the left side of the room Stephanie slept in her bed and on the right the other three lay doing the same.

The boy’s cabin had Daniel and Inan were still up, talking across the cabin. Keith saw no harm in what they were doing and left them. Malcolm was pretending to be asleep and Nathan was definitely asleep with loud snores.

Satisfied Keith walked to the staff cabin, exhausted. He barely noticed getting ready for bed before he slumped onto the mattress and blacked out.


	4. Progress

Saying Keith had a rude awakening would be an exaggeration-that would be pleasant compared to the combination of icy water and a tickling sensation dancing across the soles of his feet-he would have been giggling from the feeling if he weren’t so horribly wet and cold and _tired_.

  
“What the fuck was that for?” Keith spluttered, his vision blurred and stinging-he jumped out the bed, nudging his assailant, and wiped his eyes frantically.  


“I’m sorry!” the voice of Hunk cried, “It was Lance’s idea!”  


“Dude not cool,” the voice of Lance said with a scowl audible on his lips, “Don’t rat me out like that, I thought we were a team”.  


“At what?” Keith growled, “Pissing me off?”  


Keith’s vision cleared and he saw Lance standing holding a big, blue, _empty_ bucket he’d obviously stolen from the lake-shed; Hunk knelt at the foot of his bed with a leaf in his hand looking at the ground guiltily.  


“Prank war bro,” Lance grinned, “Us against you”.  


“No,” Keith said flatly and began to check his bedsheets-soaked through, “What time is it?”  


“Like 5AM,” Hunk said, “Shiro woke us up like half an hour ago when he went to go for a run and neither of us could get back to sleep so Lance said we should wake you up. I said if it was me I’d want to sleep but then Lance suggested we wake you up in a fun way so I suggested that we make you something and Lance said he’d already made you something but it was at the lake and so I said that was kind of him but then Lance said-”

  
“Thanks Hunk,” Keith interrupted, “I only wanted to know the time”.  


If Hunk was hurt by Keith’s abrasive words he didn’t show it-he just nodded, “We should probably start preparing for the day,” he continued, “What  are you guys gonna do with your kids?”  


Lance smirked, “My team is obviously gonna win the scavenger hunt,” he scoffed, “We’re gonna have it finished by the end of the day”.  


_No way am I going to let this idiot win_ Keith thought to himself.  


“No way am I gonna let an idiot like you win,” Keith muttered, “You don’t even know where the poison ivy is”.  


Lance’s eyes widened, “You do?” he demanded, “How?”  


“I saw it last night,” Keith lied, “I’m not telling you where though”.  


“That’s unfair, it means you got a head start!” Lance whined, “If you tell me I’ll do anything!”  


“I want your bed,” Keith said immediately, “Swap beds with me, I don’t wanna have to deal with these wet bedsheets”.  


“Deal,” Lance cried, “Now tell me where the ivy is!”  


“I saw it by the Activity Area,” Keith lied, “By the greenhouse”.  


“Will all of you please _shut up_!” Allura’s voice cried, “As Hunk so kindly shouted it’s half five in the bleeding morning! Either get out or shut up now!”  


Before any of the boys could respond Shiro marched into the cabin, his shirt sweaty and face bright and cheery, “Everyone’s up then?” he grinned, “That’s great, we can start preparing for the day!”  


“Almost everybody,” Hunk said, subtly pointing to where Coran lay face-down snoring something fierce, “That guy could sleep through anything”.  


As if to make Hunk’s point Coran shuddered on his bed and rolled over onto the floor-they all stood staring but nothing changed save for a loud snort.  


“I call dibs on not waking him up,” Lance whispered, “Dude would probably end up karate chopping us into the next life”.  


“He’s a particularly strong snorer,” Allura commented, climbing out of bed to join the others, “I wonder if he can even hear us over it”.  


“Maybe he’ll respond to certain things,” Keith said, “Like what if one of us said ‘Ninja Squirrels’ he might-”  


“Leave the waking up to the professionals Sasuke,” Lance said strongly.  


“I thought you called dibs on not waking him up?” Keith muttered bitterly.

 

“No one’s waking him up,” Shiro said decisively, “We’ll leave him to sleep, it won’t take all of us to set up for today”.

  
“I disagree,” Lance said pointedly, “If we have another person awake I will have to do less work. That’s the best possible thing that can ever happen”.  


“So it’s agreed, not only is Lance in charge of clear up today he’s going to do Coran’s job of setting up activities for the other campers”.  


Lance’s face fell and he muttered under his breath, his words unclear but their meaning obvious. He dejectedly trudged to the door.  


“Today is still induction day remember!” Allura called after him, “The kids need something safe and easy, try using the activity area!”  


Lance called back, “Anything you say babe,” sadly as he continued on his way out, so hunched over it was surprising he hadn’t fallen forward.

  
“I’m gonna go get started on breakfast,” Hunk yawned, “There’s one kid in my group with a gluten allergy, I’m gonna see if I can make her something that tastes as good as the other 48 breakfasts I’m gonna have to make.”

  
Hunk trudged off the same direction as Lance, more purpose in his walk but the same tired mood visible that hung over the rest of them, save Shiro.  


“You should all take a cold shower, or go for a quick morning swim,” Shiro advised, “It’s refreshing and you’ll wake right up!”  Allura and Keith both shot Shiro a scathing look and Shiro nodded, backing away slowly. “Okay, okay, I’ll go keep watch of the cabins, make sure none of our campers get out and escape or something.”

  
“I cannot believe the things that that man thinks are good ideas,” Allura huffed once Shiro was far out of listening distance, “The day I take a cold shower is the day I let Coran give me a haircut.”

  
“That’s weirdly specific,” Keith commented and Allura shrugged.

  
“He told me yesterday he used to be a barber and should be allowed to give the children haircuts if he wants to,” she smiled, “He carries his old hairdressing kit around everywhere, he obviously really misses it.”

  
“You said no right?”

  
Allura snorted, “Of course I did, do you really think I would let one of us cut a kid’s hair? That’s just a lawsuit waiting to happen.”  


“Shiro would say yes,” Keith grinned.  


“Shiro, whilst a wonderful man and athletic god, has no idea how to run a summer camp efficiently.”  


“Athletic god?”

 

“Repeat it and die.”  


Keith laughed and Allura joined in, Coran’s snoring only adding to the noise filling the room-soon after though both Keith and Allura decided to shower and get ready for the day which, if anything like the last day, would be sweaty and long.  


By the time they were dressed and standing back in the main section of the staff cabin Coran’s bunk was mysteriously empty, yet perfectly made. Neither of them questioned it and instead made their way along to the mess hall, chatting and joking and laughing. Keith was unsurprised to find the person he’d bonded with the easiest yet was the only girl on staff, though he felt like talking to Hunk at the same time would be an experience in itself.

  
In the mess hall they ate a quick bowl of generic-brand cereal and moved quickly outside the cabins, where a dishevelled Lance, perky Shiro and damp Coran stood waiting.  


“Coran,” Shrio smirked smugly, “Felt my suggestion of a quick swim to wake up was a good idea. He’s wide awake now and feeling energised for the day, right Coran?”  


“Oh yes, yes very much so,” Coran said, shooting a look at Keith and Allura once Shiro’s back was turned which decisively told them that he was no energised, nor awake, and it had been an awful idea.

  
“Wasn’t he asleep for our conversation?” Allura remarked and Coran shook his head.  


“I’m afraid not Princess,” he said sadly (Allura scowled at the nickname), “I was awake ever since Keith mentioned ninja squirrels. I thought though that if you all thought I was still asleep I could get out of setting up.”  


“I knew it!” Lance shouted triumphantly, “I knew he just wanted to get out of set up.”  


“What did you set up?” Keith asked.  


“One group has got an arts and crafts station for bracelets,” Lance grinned, “For friendship bracelets. I thought one of you could use the obstacle course so I made sure it was clean and usable, as well as setting up zipwire equipment for another. Oh and I got out the tools for the greenhouse so the last group can go there, I thought we could all take a planter and try to grow something and at the end of the year our _princess_ ,” he flashed a look at Allura, “Could judge which is the best, the winning group getting some prize or trophy or something.”  


Coran, Shiro and Keith stared at Lance dumbfounded-after all the whining and complaining he’d made about work and his silly behaviour they’d all written him off as lazy or incapable but that sounded like more work than even Hunk had been doing in the kitchen, cooking for 33 kids.  


“G-good job Lance,” Shiro smiled, “You should pick which activity you want for your gro-“

  
“Zipwire,” Lance said immediately.  


“My group will take the obstacle course,” Coran said, “Two of my boys have come first in their school’s sport’s day event for two years in a row!”  


“Can my group do the greenhouse first?” Keith asked softly, thinking of Nathan and Lucy, “I think a couple kids in my group would really like that.”  


“Just say you want a head start Keith, there’s no shame in that,” Lance laughed, “Who knows you might finally beat me at something.”  


Lance continued grinning to himself until Keith said “Canoe race,” which set him muttering mutinously. Not long after that Shiro decided it was time to wake up the campers and a good half an hour after a huge stream of kids all tired, but mostly excited, made their way into the mess hall. They all happily ate a variety of toast and cereal, all of which had a mainstream brand unlike the staff’s food. Keith saw Hunk carefully carry on a silver platter a special pile of toast with marmalade to one kid on the far end of the hall who wrapped her arms around Hunk and began to happily eat it.

  
The two mint haired kids, again, had an entire table to themselves but this time it wasn’t for lack of trying-Wiki came over and tried to sit with Stephanie but her brother hissed, actually hissed, at her to keep her away. Keith almost thought he saw Stephanie seem disappointed by this but all thoughts such as that were immediately lost when she laughed cruelly.

  
Leaving Shiro behind to clean up, the four teams all made their way down to the activity area, which true to Lance’s words, was set up incredibly. Hunk on the way expressed loudly to Lance how excited he was to make friendship bracelets and weave baskets and build a robot at arts and crafts and Keith honestly believed he would be able to do all three.

  
“One of us should give a speech to the kids to make sure the know what to do,” Hunk said to Lance and Keith at the back of the crowd as they all funnelled in, positioned to make sure no kids got left behind. Lance had a small girl sitting on his shoulders laughing happily.  


“Lance should do it,” Keith said immediately, “He set everything up, and did a pretty good job. If any of us gets to give a speech, it should be him.”  


Lance stared open-mouthed at Keith like he was trying to think of some comment or insult to make but nothing came-the girl on Lance’s shoulder giggled and shouted “Lance, Lance, Lance!” in agreement.

  
“Aww you broke Lance,” Hunk grinned and Keith turned his head away as he flushed. With a small girl giggling on his shoulders and a light breeze playing with his hair Lance looked far too cute for Keith to be able to look at him directly. A traitorous part of Keith’s stomach felt like it had butterflies.

  
Once the entire group had been herded in Lance took his place in front of the crowd-following Shiro’s example he stood tall on a piece of tree and cleared his throat loudly. It took Allura asking the crowd to be quiet under ‘Princess Law’ to get most the campers to listen to Lance, though the entire blue team was instantly listening.  


“If you haven’t already been here,” Lance started nervously, “This is the activity area! We’re gonna spend most of the day here doing different things but we can alternate between them all! I mean we can, you know, swap after enough time so everyone gets a turn. You should, um, go to your group leaders to find out what you’re going to be doing, but blue team we’re going to zip wire!”

  
A cheer came up from a few scattered kids in the crowd and they all charged towards Lance, whose grin had grown even bigger.

  
“You okay dude?” Hunk asked Keith, “Your face is really red.”

  
Before Keith had a chance to reply Daniel and Inan charged up grinning waiting to be told their group’s activity. By the time the last of the red team had gathered Hunk was swamped in kids and Pidge was laughing at him.  


“Ok gang,” Keith said, “I know at least two of you said yesterday how much you enjoy it, so I managed to get us to have the first turn in the greenhouse!”  


A high pitched squeal came out of one of the kids and Keith looked at Lucy expecting it to be her, but she was only staring with twinkling eyes and an awestruck expression-it was Nathan who had been excited enough to make a noise barely in human hearing.  


“And,” Keith continued, “There’s a little competition going on-every team is going to have a small space in the greenhouse to grow something and the princess will choose the best one at the end of the summer!”  


“What’s the prize?” Stephanie said immediately.  


“That will be announced once every team has had a chance to start their project. For now though what does everyone want to grow?”  


“Tomatoes!” Nathan, Lucy and Inan said simultaneously. Keith had a little experience growing tomatoes from when his foster parents had once let him do it for a school project, so he could try to guide the kids.  


Fortunately the three kids who had suggested growing tomatoes knew exactly what they were doing, so all Keith had to do was get them the seeds and they set off to work, raking the dirt and scattering seeds.  


“My grandma used to grow tomatoes with me in her garden,” Symi told Wiki, “She’s still growing them now, and I help a lot!”  


“I wish my grandma would do things with me, but she just likes to complain,” Wiki grumbled, “And my other died before I was born”.  


“My grandmas are both gone,” Symi said, “But I still grow tomatoes with her, we planted them where she was buried and she helps me every time I visit!”  


Keith decided not to listen to the two of them anymore-whilst two kids like that found it innocent or comforting Keith, and Malcolm from the look on his face, both found it morbid and somewhat terrifying to grow food on top of a dead body.

 

Leaving the kids to their own devices, carefully nurturing the seeds that would grow into hopefully successful tomatoes, Keith checked outside-in one corner of the clearing under a marquee Hunk’s group all sat carefully threading bracelets of different colours as Pidge and Hunk worked on some strange metal box-meanwhile in the opposite corner Coran led his group through a group of  tires, the kids all laughing. Lance was strapping in a teenage boy of maybe fourteen years old to the zip wire and making sure he was safe before letting him go down-for the first time in Keith’s memory not a single person seemed upset to be there.  


That was until a cry came out from inside the greenhouse.  


“She hit me!” Wiki cried, pointing at a cold looking Stephanie, somehow intimidating even when holding a pink, flowery watering can.  


“She tried to take my watering can,” Stephanie said coolly.  


“You weren’t using it!”  


“But it’s _mine_.”  


“Stephanie,” Keith said, trying to channel the spirit of Shiro, “Wiki is one of your teammates. You have to share with her and be nice, you can’t just hit them for trying to borrow something from you, especially if you weren’t even using it”.

  
Stephanie shot Keith an angry look and he knew she would find a way to get revenge on him-but Wiki seemed grateful to Keith so that, once the other kids went back to being interested in their future tomatoes she hugged his legs and whispered “Thank you,” before running back to Symi.

  
Once they’d finished in the greenhouse Keith took his group back to the mess hall for a quick lunch (where he spotted Stephanie telling her brother something Keith suspected to do with Keith) and took them back to the activity area to do the zip wire. With help from Pidge, who had an oddly intimate knowledge of how the equipment worked, Keith was able to send each of his campers down the zip wire happily. They then merged with Hunk’s group in tackling the obstacle course, though Daniel was scared slightly of running it and Malcolm had to sit out as he was too big to be able to fit through a few of the sections. Keith attempted to strike up conversation about playing guitar, something Keith had briefly pursued when he was younger, but to no avail.

  
The group began their way to the mess hall, leaving Lance to tidy up the equipment form their day. When walking to dinner Lucy ran up to Keith from ahead in the crowd, breathless, and tugged on his shirt, pointing in the direction of a rock a few feet off the path, “There’s flint,” she gasped, “For the scavenger hunt! I saw it look all shiny, it was flint!”  


“Are you sure?” Keith asked her and she nodded frantically. “Stay here,” Keith told Lucy and headed over to Coran. “Coran can you take my group to dinner? I need to help one of my campers with something.”

  
“Of course I can red!” Coran bowed, “Red team, follow me!”

  
Keith and Lucy watched the rest of the campers trail off to dinner until they were alone. Once the last of the kids had walked into the hall Keith told Lucy, “Go get some of the flint, but make sure there’s no nettles or poison ivy.”  


Lucy grinned and shuffled toward the small pile of rocks and triumphantly held up the rock.  


“Good job Lucy!” Keith smiled softly, “We only have seven things left to find thanks to you. Tomorrow, once all the others know, I’ll have the princess award you a sticker!” Lucy beamed and pressed the flint into Keith’s hand and ran to the mess hall.

  
Keith followed Lucy to dinner and, once she was sitting with Symi and Wiki, carefully pulled out the checklist of things to gather for the hunt;

  * **Poison Ivy**
  * **Elder flower**
  * **Blackcurrant**
  * **Flint**
  * **Pine Needles**
  * **Wild Mushrooms**
  * **Bilberries**
  * **Frogspawn**



As far as he was aware none of the other teams had found any of the items on the list, though they could just be hiding it if they had. Keith was in no rush to let the others know that there was flint anywhere near where he’d been today, and he doubted the others (save maybe Lance) would boast about it if it could cost them their advantage.

  
“They’ve had quite a long day,” Allura told Shiro, close enough for Keith to hear, “We should let them get to bed early.”

  
“Not before we have another campfire song,” Shiro said decisively, drawing an incredulous look from Allura.  


“You know this camp is for the kids and not you?” Allura said quietly.  


“I want to be able to get every kid to sing at these campfires,” Shiro said, “If they all have the confidence to sing in front of all their peers then they have the confidence to do anything. Did you not see the older kids yesterday, or Keith and those two twin kids? Even with everyone else having fun they were too frightened to join in.”  


A sharp shock ran through Keith like ice-was he that obvious in his discomfort? And Shiro, he was making other people do something to help him? Keith was just staff, he was meant to be done with participating in all of this camp inclusive nonsense and instead assigning it, yet here he was subject to it all over again.  


“You can’t force people to have fun Shiro,” Allura said wisely.  


“You can try.”  


Following dinner the promised sing song and campfire occurred again, despite Allura’s complaints. Many of the younger kids joined in from the start this time and a shocking number of them (including Lance) knew all of the lyrics to the _Thomas the Tank Engine_ theme song and managed to teach some of the others it. Keith sang along more noticeably this time, hoping it would alleviate Shiro’s need to have one every night, yet Shiro announced there would be another the next day.

  
The staff, save Coran who was left to watch the cabins, all headed off for their own dinner once the kids had been put to bed. Hunk served them yet another round of his, still delicious, curry and Keith helped him clean up, along with scrubbing the dishes of an entire day’s worth of camper’s food.  


By the time they had finished the moon was slowly rising over the woods and the other staff members had already got ready for bed and left Lance, who had once again drawn the figurative short straw, sitting on a log to keep watch over the campers’ cabins.  


“Hey guys,” he yawned as they made their way past him to the staff cabin, “Wanna keep me company?”  


“Dibs not me,” Hunk said faster than Keith had even processed the words. He smiled apologetically at both Lance and Keith in turn, “Sorry guys, I’ve done way too much work today to want to stay up even a second longer. You two have fun though.”  


Before either of them could complain or object Hunk turned his back to them and quickly began to walk down the path to the staff cabin. Keith stayed standing by Lance in complete silence, neither of them entirely sure what to say to the other.  


“Thank you,” Lance said eventually, breaking the surprisingly quiet night’s atmosphere,  “I mean about earlier. By the activity area, the thing you said. It was nice of you.”  


“Oh. Yeah. Any time.”  


“I’m sorry I’ve been giving you a bit of a rough time,” Lance went on, “When we were younger I was always kinda…well, jealous of you.”  


Keith was surprised that Lance would admit that-he certainly wouldn’t.  


“You were jealous of the kid in scrappy clothes with no friends and a bowl cut?” Keith laughed, “Why not be jealous of Hunk, the kid with all the friends and an adorable chubby face?”  


“No way,” Lance grinned, “I was jealous of the kid who won every competition without even trying!”  


Keith moved onto the log to sit next to Lance, “So you were jealous of Shiro?”  


Lance laughed and pushed Keith playfully, the two of them grinning. They continued to talk for longer than either of them noticed, and by the time they ran out of things to say the moon was risen high over them.  Lance had moved closer to Keith, though neither of them realised that their hands were just an inch apart on the log.  


“Wait I think I remember that!” Keith said excitedly in reply to a ridiculous camp anecdote from Lance, “You were the kid who fell body first into the poison ivy patch?”  


Lance laughed, “Yeah, that one little accident meant my family never let me come back.”  


Keith snorted, “If I knew all I had to do to never come back here was fall into some poison ivy I would have brought a diving board.”  


“I can’t believe you hated it so much here,” Lance smiled, shaking his head, “Every year I would be waiting for a chance to come back.”  


“Why? What was there here that would possibly make you wanna return.”

  
“So much,” Lance sighed, “I loved the wooden smell of the cabins every night and the way the lake was always a refreshing cold dip from the summer heat.”  


“What about the year that the lake wasn’t accessible because of all of the weird stuff floating in it?”  


“Okay fine not the lake. But I loved the people, coming back and seeing familiar faces and new ones, the whole making new friends and reuniting with old ones thing.”  


Keith shrugged, “Can’t relate,” he said. Lance’s eyes were so glittery and sincere it was difficult not to want to agree with him on everything he said, he made this camp sound like it was a paradise. It was enough to make Keith forget the strange smell of tobacco that always hung over the camp, or the way the lake water would sting if you let it touch you for too long or the wildlife that used to prowl both day and night.  


“It sucks you didn’t have a good time,” Lance said, “I always thought you loved it here. The look you’d get on your face when you were competing, like nothing else in the world would affect you, you seemed so fierce and powerful. I always wanted that face to be on a team with me.”  


“You wanted me to work with you?” Keith asked in disbelief, “Not against you?”  


“Of course I did,” Lance sighed, “You were cute and focused and so _unbeatable_ , who wouldn’t want to work alongside that?”

  
Keith blushed, “C-cute?” he whispered, unconsciously moving slightly closer to Lance. The other boy’s face flushed and too moved slightly closer. They were only inches apart now, fingers slightly brushing.  


“You still slightly are,” he mumbled.  


Keith’s heart hammered in his chest and everything else seemed so in focus-he could see every little crease and crevice on Lance’s face, smell the subtle scent of nature around him, even hear Lance’s breathing.  


At that moment though, the most unfortunate noise happened-a creak of wood came from the cabin, though not the natural creak that any wooden structure would make but rather that of an old door opening slowly. Both boys’ heads turned quickly and they saw the head of Wiki poking out through a crack in the door of her cabin. She instantly moved back into the cabin with a squeak.  


“I should, um, check on her,” Keith stammered.  


“Yeah,” Lance mumbled, “Yeah go, do that.”

  
Keith moved quickly up the steps of the cabin and poked his head in through the door, “Wiki,” he whispered, but to no reply. He saw a quick wave from one of the beds and, in his dazed and confused state, took it to mean everything was okay.

  
“Everything’s okay,” Keith said, walking back to Lance numbly. Lance nodded. “I should probably go back to the staff cabin. I’ll tell Coran to come take your place or something.” Lance nodded again.  
  
Walking back along the path to the staff cabin Keith expected to be feeling some form of anger at himself for leaving-or maybe at Lance for letting him, or Wiki for interrupting them. God what if Wiki told all the girls that they were about to kiss? Were they about to kiss? Keith was going to kiss Lance, but what if Lance didn’t want to kiss him back?

  
His mind so caught up in thought he barely noticed getting ready for sleep or climbing into his bunk-he had so many scenarios filling his head and running around leaving him a confused mess. He came to the resolution that he would have to talk to Lance about what had just happened-or avoid Lance forever and hope the situation resolved itself.  


At some point after the decision to change his name to Leo and hide in France Keith’s body gave out and his mind slipped into dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It just occurred to me, Wiki is a polish name pronounced with a V not a W, so be careful of that
> 
> I don't know when there's gonna be more keep an eye out!!


	5. Clearing Things Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Major trigger warnings for transphobia, slight mentions of bodily harm and child abuse!! If you feel like this could hurt PLEASE don't read it, you shouldn't have to deal with that!

The sun was barely rising through the windows when Keith was, again rudely, woken up the following morning-this time instead of Shiro rousing them enthusiastically or Lance pouring the water from the freezing pits of hell over him, it was the nudge of a person crawling into bed next to him.

 _What_.

“Lousy, long haired emo, gets all cute and teases me then goes to get someone to change shift and doesn’t come back,” Lance murmured, “Make me stay up all night I am so going to have revenge oh he will regret this, at least Coran is watching the kids now, Hunk better help me get revenge.”

With a jolt the memory of the past morning struck Keith-he’d forgotten the two of them had swapped beds! Somehow a tired, half asleep, vengeful Lance had better memory than a wide awake Keith.

 

Keith tried to justify it to himself that he was distracted by the events that the previous night had entailed but really he had no excuse-he was sleeping in another person’s bed and when the other person noticed he would have to own up to it, any moment now.

 _Any moment now._  
  
Every shift Lance made in his sleep made Keith’s heart race. Every little sharp breath or sleepy mumble Lance made left Keith fearful of Lance noticing him. Several times he decided to give up and sleep and deal with the situation in the morning, but then Lance’s leg would brush against his and he would stiffen up again wide awake.

  
Before long morning came and with it Shiro got up, though the rest of the group all remained stubbornly asleep. He quickly, in the centre of the cabin, got changed into a black tank top and grey tracksuit bottoms-his running gear. Keith closed his eyes as soon as Shiro’s shirt came off, ignoring his desire to check out the “Athletic God” in favour of letting Shiro keep his dignity. Before long it seemed that Shiro would be out the cabin but instead, of course, he just happened to notice Keith in Lance’s bed.

“It’s a kid’s summer camp,” Shiro muttered to himself, “Honestly those two can’t be doing this here.”

“Doing what?” Keith whispered, enjoying the startled look Shiro gave at the realisation he was awake.

“You know exactly what I mean!” Shiro sniped, “You and Lance, sharing a bed, after coming into the cabin late last night.”

“I got into Lance’s bed by mistake and he didn’t notice somehow!” Keith shot back, “Now stop being so loud or you’ll wake him up!”

“He’s gonna wake up eventually, what are you gonna do then?”

“Strangle him!”

“You could probably climb out over him if you tried.”

  
Keith considered it, “Could you help me?”

“On one condition,” Shiro whispered with a nod.

“What?”

“You have to come on my morning run with me.”

“Shiro that’s ridiculous, you can’t blackmail me into going running at the crack of-“

  
“Oh look I think he’s waking up.”

Keith muttered an obscenity and began to subtly shift, “Just get ready to lift me,” he whispered mutinously. Shiro held out his hand and, bracingly, Keith took it. Not expecting the real extent of Shiro’s strength, Keith accidentally pushed too hard off of the wall at the side of the bed and found himself flying in a silent panic at Shiro.

Shiro, however, caught Keith immediately in his firm and unsurprisingly firm arms. He looked down at Keith, who he was practically cradling like a child.

“You comfortable?” he whispered smugly.

“Put me down,” whispered a blushing Keith through his gritted teeth, “Right now.”

“I’ll wait for you outside,” Shiro whispered to Keith, “Get changed into some sports stuff, there should be a pair of trackies you can wear.”

Shooting Shiro a silent look Keith dragged his clothes into one of the cabin’s two bathrooms and began to change, as slowly and stubbornly as he could, into red and white gym wear. He crept out the cabin to join Shiro, who was busy doing stretches outside.

“You wanna warm up?” he grinned, throwing his arm behind his head and leaning over to one side.

“Just try to keep up,” Keith said, not entirely sure where this confidence was coming from-not ten minutes ago he was lying awake, unblinking and afraid, next to Lance and now he was taunting possibly the most physically fit person he’d ever met.

The two boys began to jog down the path, Shiro clearly holding back for Keith’s sake. They moved quickly past Coran out front of the kids’ cabin; Coran gave Keith a clearly empathetic look, as if pitying him for exercising with Shiro the way he had the previous day. Ignoring it Keith sped up slightly past Shiro as they ran up the winding path to the lake; by the time they’d reached it Keith was already panting, out of breath.

  
“You okay there Keith?” Shiro laughed, having clearly received the endorphins from exercise that Keith had so mockingly been denied. In response to Shiro’s mocking Keith just gave a thumbs up and breathed in gulps of oxygen. “Okay, if you go round the whole lake with me I won’t make you do this ever again.”

Again, replying wordlessly, Keith began to run around the circumference of the winding lake. He knew it was a longer path than the distance they’d run already, but his eagerness to get to shower overtook the urge to rest. The sweatiness caused by jogging made Keith realised he hadn’t washed since the day before he’d begun working at camp-meaning five days. Deodorant could only do so much, and Keith really hoped Lance hadn’t noticed last night on the log.

“On your left,” Shiro taunted, quickly overtaking Keith and jolting him out of his thoughts. Encouraged Keith began to pick up his pace and his legs cried out in protest. Around halfway around the lake Keith felt like he was going to throw up but kept going-if Lance knew how out of shape he was he’d never hear the end of it.

  
A little further around the lake Keith saw a small patch of a plant he knew Lance would kill to get his hands on-through his exhaustion Keith made a mental note about a little blackcurrant bush tucked away by an old looking oak tree (or maybe birch? Mahogany? Keith didn’t know trees).

Finally Keith found himself at the end of the lake’s path again and his legs gave out, leaving him to flop out onto the floor and suck as much air in as he could. Shiro, who just to make a point had reached the end a full minute before Keith, looked up and around the glittering lake wistfully.

“You wouldn’t mind if I did another lap would you?” Shiro asked sincerely and Keith just waved in approval. Immediately Shiro set out again, and Keith just laid back flat on his back regaining composure. He made another mental note to find the washing machine that must be tucked away somewhere and clean the sweat-ridden clothes he was wearing as soon as he could.

  
Faster than his first lap Shiro returned, slightly sweatier and out of breath. His black tank top clung to his chest, displaying hard muscles and hard pecs. Keith scolded himself for staring but simultaneously couldn’t bring himself to look away.

  
“You exercise a lot,” Keith commented, his exercise-high brain not bothering to stop himself from saying the first things to pop into his head, “What’s with that?”

Shiro shrugged, “Your issues can’t catch up with you if you run faster than them.”

Keith sat up and shook his hair out of his face, “Your issues can’t affect you if you face them head on and solve them.”

“Some issues you can’t face.” Shiro sat down on the ground next to Keith and Keith became aware of how parched his throat was, “The thing about how I lost my arm isn’t true. The whole ‘Stuck in a Motor Boat’ thing was just something I made up to keep people from pestering me about it.”

Keith frowned, “Really?”

“You really think the camp could be kept open after someone had their arm cut off?” Shiro said, a smile on his face but no happiness to accompany it, “When I was around 17 I got…kidnapped.” Noticing the incredulous look on Keith’s face Shiro continued, “I was walking home from a friend’s house and a big, purple van pulled up and took me. They knew my grandfather owned the camp so they figured my family must have some kind of cash.”

“And they…they decided to cut off your arm for it?”

“When my family didn’t immediately give in to their demands and had contacted the police they decided to be cliché and cut off a finger to send in the post,” Shiro said, “Of course the idiots used a dirty knife and my hand got infected. By the time the police found me my arm was so messed up they had to just get rid of the entire thing.”

“Shiro…” Keith said, hoping his mouth would just provide the words to say but he found nothing. What do you say to a person after they tell you about the kind of experience that can leave a person with post-traumatic stress disorder and left them with one part of them missing they could never get back?

  
“I’ve gone to the therapy, I’ve done the talk, I’ve got past this,” Shiro said comfortingly, twisting Keith’s insides-was Shiro trying to make Keith feel better about the situation? After talking about such an awful thing Shiro had to make Keith feel better? “You don’t have to worry about me when it comes to this; I have exercise to help me cope and a cool robotic arm to slap anyone that would make fun of me.”

“You’re an incredible person Shiro,” Keith mumbled lamely, “All that happened and all you want to do is give thirty something kids a great summer.”

“Someone has to do it,” Shiro said with a sad shrug and a hopeful smile. Keith moved in closer and hugged Shiro, the first time he’d ever hugged a person out of comfort. Shiro briefly closed his arms around Keith before retracting them just as slowly. “We have to go shower, we’re sweaty and there won’t be any cold water if we shower after the kids”.

“We should have some kind of system to make sure the kids all shower,” Keith remarked, climbing to his feet and offering Shiro his hand, “Or is the honour system good enough for us?”

Shiro and Keith continued to chat down the lake’s path, past the kids’ cabins and Coran all the way back to the staff cabin. Inside Lance was still fast asleep in his bed but Allura and Hunk had vacated theirs, presumably to prepare breakfast for the campers. At the beginning of the week Shiro had told them all that they’d have their own individual responsibilities but it seemed like that had completely flown out the window. Save for Allura’s paperwork, they’d all done each other’s work at some point.

Keith took the right hand bathroom again, with a towel and fresh set of red and black clothes, and had a dearly needed shower. The past five day’s grime and sweat and dirt rolled off his body and a disturbing amount of it fell from Keith’s hair. He spent a good ten minutes just letting the hot water roll over his skin and embraced the only time he was really at home.

  
Keith climber out the shower, brushed his teeth, dried off, got dressed and stepped out fresh into the empty cabin. He’d hoped to be able to talk to Lance alone in the cabin but evidently Lance had sped off to breakfast.

But when Keith himself reached breakfast Lance was again, not there. Hunk told him he’d just gone off to do “Something” which Keith suspected to be Hunk’s poor lying skills. Keith didn’t get to see Lance until they were all gathered to address their groups that morning, which was no time to talk personal lives, especially as Lance had that small girl sitting on his shoulders yet again.

  
Keith’s group headed off to the greenhouse to check on their tomato project before heading up to the lake, where Keith informed his kids that he’d spotted another item on their scavenger hunt and that the first person to find the fruits would win a sticker just like the one he had had Allura award once before they’d gone into the greenhouse.

The kids all wandered off around the lake, not straying too far from Keith. Malcolm trudged the furthest away, and coincidentally the closest to the tree where Keith remembered the berries were, whilst Lucy and Symi had a race to see who could find them first and the remaining three boys teamed up to search together. Wiki approached Stephanie and asked if they could work together too. Stephanie followed Malcolm’s footsteps in stomping off alone, which gave Keith a chance to talk to Wiki about what she might have seen last night.

“Stephanie isn’t so mean,” Wiki told Keith wisely as they poked around a bush that Keith didn’t have the heart to say was just a shrub, “I’ve seen her be nice at least twice now. I just know if I can get her to stop listening to her brother she’ll be way nicer to all of us!”

“You think it could work?” Keith asked her, impressed such a young kid had so much hope-at her age Keith had already pretty much given up on other kids. Then again, Keith had been passed around in the foster system, whereas Wiki listening to 5 Seconds of Summer.

“What about you and the blue paladin?” Wiki giggled, “You two have to be enemies! Daniel said you were sworn to fight to the death! And Lucy said she heard you and the princess teasing him! But you two overcame the odds and found love across the rivalry!”

“I don’t-I mean I’m not-Lance isn’t like that!” Keith’s face flushed furiously and he shook his head rapidly-“Lance and I aren’t in love!”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Wiki promised, “I know that you have to keep it secret, or both of you would get in a lot of trouble!”

Before Keith could respond a voice Keith didn’t recognise shouted excitedly:

“I found it! There’s a whole bush of them over here!”

Keith whipped his head around and saw Malcolm excitedly pointing behind the old oak tree. Daniel, Lucy, Symi, Nathan, Wiki and Inan all rushed over excitedly whilst Stephanie meandered toward him slowly. Keith had to hide a keep a look of disbelief from his face, he couldn’t believe that Malcolm had sounded so excited about something, and clearly neither could Malcolm. He immediately regained his composure as a relaxed, apathetic teenage boy but Keith knew what he’d seen. Malcolm had been into the camp activities, which meant Shiro’s efforts at the campfire weren’t for nought and Keith could find a way to make sure Malcolm enjoyed his time at Camp Voltron.

“Good job Malcolm,” Keith smiled, again attempting to channel Shiro’s spirit in his talking, “You wanna do the honours of picking just enough for us? And some for tasting too?”

Malcolm shrugged uncaringly, “Yeah, I guess,” he sighed and shuffled slightly into the growth. He plucked around two dozen berries and Keith distributed them to each of the kids, saving three to use in the hunt. He hoped they found the rest of the items soon, it probably hadn’t occurred to Shiro that some of the organic items on the list wouldn’t last all summer.

“You know this means you get a sticker right?” Keith grinned at Malcolm as the kids, including Stephanie, all enjoyed their berries, “It means we have to go find Princess and make her give you a sticker.”

Malcolm’s ears went red, “Th-the princess?” he said, his voice cracking, “It’s fine, she doesn’t have to, it’s not a big thing.”

  
“That’s not fair though!” Lucy squeaked, “She did it for me, she has to do it for you too!”

The look on Lucy’s face must have been enough to crumble Malcolm’s desire for a cool, apathetic exterior because it crumbled away in seconds; he gave in with an “Okay, yeah, fine I guess.”

  
The group went back to the central cabins the long way, circling around the lake to search for poison ivy, passing the boatshed and heading down a path Keith had never explored and found an old cabin (a quick glance through the window as the others were distracted showed it to be full of laundry hampers and washing machines). Further down the path Keith found that it looped up behind the staff cabin and their group all headed back to the lunch hall.

  
After what looked like a delicious lunch that Keith had to miss in a futile effort to find first Lance, to discuss last night, then Allura they all headed to the centre of the camp, accompanied by Pidge, to watch Shiro award Malcolm with a sticker. Keith thought Malcolm would be disappointed that Allura wasn’t there to give the sticker herself but given how much more furiously Malcolm blushed when Keith told him it would be Shiro he figured it wasn’t a big deal.

The rest of the afternoon was spent over in the arts and crafts marquee carefully crafting little pouches to store things found on the scavenger hunt off of an instruction booklet Keith found lying out, though Pidge seemed to have come with them to keep working on the project he and Hunk had been building the day before, which Keith was starting to suspect was meant to be a robot.

The younger three boys, Lucy and Symi all sat carefully helping each other with one pouch whilst Malcolm, a seasoned camp veteran got on with it alone, surprising Keith by chipping in to help the others every so often. Wiki and Stephanie, meanwhile, seemed to be happily chatting together which Keith felt was unlike Stephanie until he heard their chosen topic of conversation.

“Of course you can’t trust _him_ ,” Stephanie told Wiki with a strange emphasis on the ‘him’-Keith assumed it was about him until he continued to listen in, “Acting like _he’s_ building some robot like _he_ actually knows what _he’s_ doing.” Stephanie flashed Pidge a look and an angry and uncomfortable looking Pidge hid his face behind his creation.

“I don’t think you should be so mean to them,” Wiki said quietly, “I mean what does it achieve?”

“My brother once told me that _he_ had asked him to call him,” Stephanie paused and dropped her voice into a whisper so low Keith missed what she said. Pidge, evidently however, did not miss it and slammed his tools down onto the table he was working at.

“I’m going over to Hunk’s group,” he told Keith loudly and stormed off toward the greenhouse. Keith turned on Stephanie.

“What was it you were saying about him?” Keith asked her accusingly, trying and failing to keep his voice professional. He became extremely aware of the sets of eyes his group had staring him down, surrounded by all angles.

“I wasn’t saying anything about _him_ ,” she said innocently, a cruel smile playing on her lips, “I guess _he_ is just confused, isn’t _he_?”

Keith glanced at Malcolm, considering his options. “Can you look after the group for a few minutes?”

Malcolm blinked in surprise and mumbled confirmation. Keith began to jog across to Pidge, managing to catch him before he reached the greenhouse.

“What happened back there man?” Keith asked caringly, placing a hand on Pidge’s shoulder, which was immediately shaken off in anger-Pidge continued to storm away, towards the trees near to the greenhouse, and Keith followed.

“Don’t call me man,” Pidge muttered, rummaging around in the bushes as if looking for something.

“What was it she said that managed to get to you?” Keith asked, refusing to give in to Pidge’s anger, “Because I know you know she’s just trying to get to you, and you can’t let her.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Pidge said, “You don’t have to live with what I do.”

“And what do you have to live with?”

“This!” Pidge shouted, gesturing to all of himself, “You don’t have to live with everyone assuming something about you without even talking to you! To have people tell you you’re one thing for over a decade and figure out you’re not! To be forced to tell every person you meet to not call you something that it doesn’t even occur to them that you aren’t!”

Keith frowned in confusion, “Pidge you’re not making sense,” he stated, “What are you talking about?”

Pidge’s hand seemed to find what he was looking for and the same purple backpack he’d seen the boy wear during their first meeting was pulled out of the bush.

“I’m going home,” Pidge told Keith, facing away from him, “At least my family don’t expect me to have to be someone I’m not. At least they don’t make fun of me for who I am.”

That phrase clicked something in Keith’s head-he’d been in the foster system and he’d heard older kids, younger kids and himself use the phrase when coming to terms with themselves in one way or another. For most kids it had meant being gay or bisexual or some other variation on their orientation but often it meant something else.

  
Keith was surprised he hadn’t thought of it earlier-the way Pidge seemed distanced from any group of campers, the strange emphasis Stephanie had put on Pidge’s pronouns.

“It’s okay that you’re not what you’ve been called all your life,” Keith said lamely, never sure what to say in these situations, “It’s okay that you’re not a he and it’s okay to get frustrated at how terrible the world is when it comes to this.”

“Oh like you know anything about this,” Pidge muttered, turning back to face Keith, “You have no idea what it’s like to not even feel comfortable seeing yourself in a mirror, to have to come out to complete strangers because of how inexplicably normal they think their way is.”

“I have some ideas,” Keith said, “I don’t know it for the same reasons as you-I don’t know it for feeling out of place with my gender but I know what it’s like to see your reflection and have to look away because of what you see, or to have to come out to someone you’ll never meet again because you want to have a real conversation.”

“What reason would you have for not looking in a mirror?” Pidge asked, their shoulders just lowering slightly to a less defensive pose-progress.

“The men that used to run this camp were cruel,” Keith said, “They had a line they never crossed but the side that they were on still had a lot of evil things on it.”

“I know,” Pidge said, “I’ve been here before.”

“Did they ever hit you?” Keith said plainly, “They did me. The owner, the worst of them, hated how I was back every year without really joining in. He would hurt me at the start of the summer and by the end I would be healed enough that no one at home would believe me or care.”

Pidge stared in shock-Keith had the odd urge to comfort her with the news, the way Shiro had earlier that day, but he held strong. He knew first hand often hearing someone else shared some similar traumatic experience would help you accept your own.

“Did they…did they do anything else?” Pidge asked.

“They never went beyond that,” Keith told them, “I’m thankful for it often but I know it’s twisted I’m thankful they didn’t do worse things rather than angry they did anything. Violence was the worst of it not…” Keith left his sentence open, preferring not to say the unspoken words. Pidge understood fine however, and took off their backpack.

“My name is Katie,” they said slowly, “I’ve known I’m Katie for about two years now. At school about one year ago I asked someone to call me she and that person told another and pretty soon everyone knew and not many did it.”

“And Stephanie goes to your school?”

Katie shook her head, “No, her brother does. That’s why she spends so much time with him here; it’s the only real time she gets to see him. He’s a bad influence on her, apparently she’s lovely the rest of the year but when she’s with her brother she gets the urge to impress him.”

“What’s he like?” Keith said and Katie made a sour face.

“Awful,” she said, “One of those people who believe that the fact he had money means he’s above other people and so he bosses them around. And they do as he says because he has money.”

“Thank you for telling me about yourself Katie,” Keith said in a small voice after a time.

Katie smiled softly, “I’m sorry for making you feel like you needed to tell me about you,” she said, “And you can still call me Pidge, it’s a nickname my older brother Matt gave me.”

“Because you’re short?”

“Because I’m short,” Pidge confirmed with a snort, “You can go back to your team, I’m gonna go find Lance and pester him.”

“Can you tell him to meet me outside the kitchens during dinner later?” Keith said immediately and Pidge nodded, “Thanks ma-girl. Um not girl, that sounds like one of those flirty things Lance says to Allura.”

“Just call me Pidge,” she said, “No nicknames, just what I want to be called.”

“Okay.” Keith let out a breath. “Can you just tell Lance I need to talk about last night?”

“I’ll pass on your message,” Pidge promised with an annoyingly cocked eyebrow. After a few more brief words she threw her backpack haphazardly back into the bushes and started on her way towards the main cabins. Keith walked back to his group and found them all surprisingly docile, still at work the way they had been before.

“Is she okay?” Wiki asked immediately. Keith gave Wiki a look he hoped she would understand for outing Pidge to the entire group but she shook her head. “They all already know.” Keith gave her another look. “It wasn’t me! Someone else did it.”

Keith immediately took someone else to mean Stephanie and he found himself correct as she added her opinion into the discussion.

“So what if I told everyone what a liar he is,” she scoffed, “He just wants attention, it’s not a big deal. One day he’ll grow up and stop acting like he’s special.”

“Just because you look like your brother Stephanie,” Keith said, “Doesn’t mean you have to act like him.”

Stephanie sulked for the rest of the afternoon while everyone else finished a total of two pouches between them all-the one that Stephanie and Wiki had been working on unsurprisingly remained unfinished and Wiki was forced to join in with the others.

  
Heading off towards the dining hall for dinner Keith made sure his campers all made their way into the hall Keith walked around the building to the back, by a large set of doors that the kitchen could easily be restocked through.

Keith stood outside the kitchen doors for what must have been over half an hour, as after what felt like an eternity the huge herd of campers was making their way down to the bonfire and Keith followed resigned.

Down around the large campfire Shiro had brought an acoustic and was strumming an old Beatles song-Keith didn’t question where the guitar came from. He was more focused on Lance, with that goddamn girl sitting on his shoulders, singing happily next to Hunk and Pidge. Most everyone around Keith was singing, Malcolm and one or two other shy campers being the few exceptions. Lance looked over in Keith’s direction and seemed to stare right through him, not even registering he was there.

Something inside Keith curled up small and his mind switched off. He sat numbly, a false smile put on his face by force of habit. He hadn’t felt like this since he was just fourteen, having officially given up on ever being adopted. The entire day’s events were too much, everyone was so full of pain and hurt and problems and now the little hope Keith didn’t know he had was snuffed out by just a look.

Before he knew it Shiro dismissed the campers off to bed and Keith volunteered to take first watch, waving all the others off like he was okay and just too restless to go to sleep just yet-in reality he just wasn’t ready to face being in a small room with a group of people, with Lance, and not be hurt.

Keith sat on the log that he and Lance had shared and let time pass over him without noticing a single second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oho you thought I would resolve this? You were wrong!


	6. One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

When a person cries they do it for a reason-when a baby cries it is because they need food or drink, when a child cries they want sympathy or need help. When a teenager cries it’s because they are so overwhelmed by what the world expects of them that they simply cannot handle it for a single second longer and they need some kind of release.

  
When an adult cries it’s because they need comfort-once you pass 18 that’s it for crying, if you do it you’re just looking for help and if you get help you are seen as weaker for it. In his life Keith would never let himself be seen crying by anyone-at camp after a particularly bad day with one of the adults Keith had a spot in the woods he would hide in and wait it out until the tears dried up. And of course the tears always dry up and when they do they leave a person empty.   


That empty person left over after crying is just a vessel of hollow thought and bloodshot eyes at that point and the older you get the more difficult it is to have any kind of solution to that emptiness except sleep, alcohol or the comfort of another person.   


And out of every person he had met at Camp Voltron it seemed least likely it was Hunk that would come to help Keith.   


Hunk had come out to help Keith and Keith hadn’t even noticed until Hunk had held out a small juice pouch with a knowing expression on his face. Keith stared with tear soaked eyes and Hunk hugged him.   


Having neglected to feed it, Keith watched Shiro’s campfire glow as nothing up embers, and hardly registered going from staring at it from over Hunk’s shoulders to sitting and staring at it from a log. Not the same log Lance and Keith had shared, that would have been too soon to spend with another person, but rather one sitting just slightly diagonally from it.

  
Keith’s tears stopped flowing in the time that he spent staring at the hot coals and he felt the hollowness take over. Hunk pierced the juice pouch he’d held out for Keith, forced Keith’s fingers around it and pushed it into Keith’s mouth like a mannequin.   


“You need to have something,” Hunk said resolutely, “Low blood sugar will not help right now and I know for a fact you skipped dinner.”   


Keith slowly began to suck the liquid into his mouth, the taste of apples and blackcurrant feeling far away and unreal. Hunk gave Keith’s arm a sympathetic pat.   


“Lance seemed really upset today,” Hunk continued, “And from everything he said I knew you weren’t in the wrong. I mean sure you left him alone for hours and spent most the evening leading him on”-Keith sniffled-“But that’s the Lance perspective. To you a camper needed help and you did your job in offering it, no matter what it interrupted between you and Lance. He’s being childish.”   


“Lance isn’t childish,” Keith mumbled, “My kids, red team, they’re childish. They laugh and play and act like kids. Lance is being unnecessarily unkind and acting like an asshole.”   


“And the way Pidge tells it a kid in your group is fully capable of acting unkind and like an asshole.” Keith stared at Hunk and Hunk shrugged. “I’m building a robot with her, we aren’t gonna keep any secrets. I know that a certain mint haired demon has been trying to torment her for fun.”   


“And did she tell you what I told her?”   


Hunk shook his head. “We aren’t keeping secrets, but that doesn’t mean she’ll tell me yours. But I know that you asked Lance to meet you outside the kitchens.   


“So you know he didn’t come.”   


“Pidge wanted to come out to tell you he said no, but Shiro wouldn’t let her out front and I couldn’t let her out through the kitchen so she couldn’t warn you what he was like.”   


“It wouldn’t have helped,” Keith muttered dismissively. He wiped his tears on his shirt and stood up, ignoring the sad look Hunk was giving him.   


“So you’re gonna go to bed then?” Hunk said as Keith began to walk away. Keith stopped in his tracks, facing away from Hunk.   


“Why not? It’s not like there’s anything else here to do.”   


“You could go join Lance at the lake,” Hunk said and Keith’s insides boiled in a combination of emotion. ‘ _How dare Hunk withhold that information_ ’ screamed a part of Keith, whilst another seethed at the smug feeling of satisfaction that Hunk must be feeling at dropping that bombshell.   


Mostly Keith was just glad he had a chance to talk to Lance before the next day.   


“I saw him go back to the cabin with you,” Keith said, attempting the keep the accusing tone out of his voice, “How could he have got to the lake?”   


“He walked down the second path, the one that goes past the poison ivy and the laundry,” Hunk said, “He said he fancied a dip before bed. Not even Shiro wanted to join him.”   


“And you think I would?” Keith asked.   


“Coran says a swim in the lake can really wake you up,” Hunk promised, “And you never know, Lance seemed like he’d be more agreeable in the water.” Hunk paused. “Or less likely to be able to escape.”  


“I’m going to bed,” Keith said tiredly, and left before he could hear Hunk say anything else. He began to walk back along the path to the staff cabin. He thought bitterly about Lance swimming alone in the lake, probably smugly enjoying the pain he was causing Keith.-probably trying as fast as he could to be as fast as possible in the water so that he could beat Keith when he finally challenged him to a race.   


Keith walked straight past the staff cabin thinking angrily to himself, following the trail he’d found only that morning. Keith began to dwell on how Lance would beat him at the imaginary race, smugly standing there, still dripping wet, as he gloated arrogantly, the sun shining off his smooth chest and hitting Keith right in the eyes. Or maybe he was swimming for some other asshole-ish reason, like looking for fish or something dumb. He’d probably slap Keith across the face with the fish to wake him up. God that would be so like Lance, there’d barely been a day that he hadn’t woken Keith up either with his warm body pressed against him or cold water over his head or some other antic. Keith scowled at the voice reminding Keith he’d only been woken up twice by Lance and ignored it instead choosing to focus on the beautiful, moonlit lake reflecting the incredible night sky almost perfectly-small ripples ran through the lake as the night breeze lazily unbalanced the water and larger ones disturbed even the moon’s reflection, all coming from a thin, lonesome figure pushing his way through the water.

  
Keith snuck his way around the edge of the lake, planning what he would say to Lance. Maybe he’d pretend he’d been here for a swim too (too obvious) or he could get Lance’s clothes wet to annoy him (too noisy) or maybe just move Lance’s clothes so he’d have a hassle trying to get back to the cabin with his dignity. Yeah, that would work, he just had to think of a good hiding spot.

  
Keith backtracked back through the bushes to the docks, Lance’s clothes sitting neatly in a pile at the end-he’d even folded them, like some kind of fancy laundry service. It would be difficult to be able to make his way all the way down to where Lance had his clothes and move them somewhere else, or just straight up take them maybe, without being caught. Upset rage still ran through Keith’s veins thought and he found his legs creeping down the dock long before his mind had fully decided on a course of action.

  
Keith was at the end of the dock in seconds and could feel the pride of his nine year old version of himself, still deep in his ninja-loving phase emanating through the years. Carefully scooping the neat pile of camp clothes and bolted back down the dock. Not even halfway down one of the newly placed wooden panels creaked under Keith’s weight but he pressed on, hoping the sound of the water around Lance could disguise any noise he was making.

  
Once he was back safely in the bushes Keith stared at the pile of clothing he was holding and frowned-he both hadn’t thought this far ahead nor expected to see Lance’s underwear in the pile. He couldn’t just bring Lance’s clothes back  to the cabin, everyone except Shiro would know he’d just done a dumb, childish prank on Lance (but of course Shiro would assume some weird sex thing again). But at the same time what good would just hiding his clothes do, this prank would only be satisfying if he saw it through to the end.  So what, he would just hide the clothes in bushes and have Hunk silently judge him for not talking to Lance but still come to the lake?  


Keith silently swore and started his way back down towards the end of the dock to carefully replace the clothes.   


Avoiding the creaky board, Keith reached the end of the dock. He carefully arranged the clothes in what he hoped was the correct order and neatly set them down exactly where they’d been before. He was so close to getting away.   


“What the hell are you doing with my clothes?” an angry voice demanded and Keith could swear he felt whatever form luck took laughing at him. Floating in the water right at the end of the dock, looking like an angry mermaid, was Lance.  


“I’m putting them back where they were _Lance_ ,” Keith scowled back, keeping his eyes firmly placed at the top of the pile of clothes in an effort to ignore Lance.

  
“Well they’re back now,” Lance said, “So you can leave them where they are and shove off.” Keith’s rage shot up again and he grabbed the clothes in his arms. “Put those down!” Lance demanded, but Keith just pulled a single sock out of the pile and held it over the lake water. By the time his mind had caught up with what his body was doing, Keith realised what an incredible advantage he held over Lance right now.   


“We’re going to talk,” Keith said through gritted teeth, “And you’re not going to brush me off like you did at dinner.”   


“Or what?”

  
Keith let the sock he held over the water slip through his finger and fall against the now still lake water and let a small part of himself feel satisfied by the dull thud it made.   


“Hey!” Lance shouted and swam quickly over to the floating sock and grabbed it, “What the hell are you doing?”   


“We’re going to talk,” Keith repeated, “And if you refuse I put another bit of clothing in the water.”

  
“You can’t be serious!” The second sock hit the water. “Okay, okay, fine, what do we have to talk about?”   


Keith thought for a moment. “What would have happened last night if we hadn’t been interrupted?”

  
“How would I know?” Lance scowled. Keith dropped Lance’s underwear into the water and Lance quickly grabbed them and moved his arms around as if he was putting them on-even through his anger Keith looked away. “I was about to kiss you. It was a big deal and I was angry that you didn’t come back and do some dumb grand gesture.”

  
“Why would kissing me be such a big deal?” Keith asked plainly, his anger suppressing the part of him roaring with joy at Lance admitting to wanting to kiss him, “The way you act you must’ve kissed dozens of girls at this camp, why would kissing me be such a big thing.”

 

Lance muttered something incoherent under his breath so Keith held the entire pile over the lake and Lance repeated louder, “I’ve never kissed anyone!”

  
Keith stared in disbelief. “Me neither,” he said.

  
“Can we talk about something else now,” Lance murmured with flushed cheeks.

 

“Why didn’t you come to see me outside the food hall?” Keith asked calmly. Beneath the surface his rage and turmoil boiled but he held himself coolly and tried his best to hide it.

  
“I don’t know,” Lance muttered, his voice a mix of ashamed and embarrassed. Keith unfolded Lance’s shirt from the pile and held it over the water. “I don’t know! I felt confused after last night I guess and I wanted to get back at you for leaving me like that!”

  
“You just wanted to hurt me is what you’re saying?” Keith glared down at Lance. “So you just wanted to make me feel bad?”

  
“I didn’t think it through Keith! Not all of us can be perfect, level-headed people like you; we can’t just close out our feelings and bury ourselves in some kind of swimming or _training_ for some dumb competition.”

  
“I’m not perfect,” Keith said bitterly and Lance laughed hollowly.   


“Just because you say that doesn’t mean you don’t think it,” said Lance cruelly, “And the rest of us think you’re perfect, why shouldn’t you? I mean Shiro’s already chosen you as his favourite, and Allura makes jokes behind the rest of our backs with you. You have Pidge running messages for you and Hunk’s already completely on your side, there’s no way you’re not perfect!”  


“You want to see how imperfect I am?”                Keith demanded, leaving his cool demeanour behind entirely and allowing emotion to take the reins. “Look at this.” Keith balanced the remaining clothes in his left hand pulled up the hem of his shirt and showed a long, defined burn that covered the expanse from a section of his chest to his right hip. In the pale moonlight the burn seemed to contrast against Keith’s skin even more.   


“Keith…”   


“At some point before I was thrown into the adoption system I was in a house fire and I can’t even remember it!”   


“Keith-“   


“So I’m not perfect, because for as long as I can remember I’ve had this huge mark scarring me and I don’t even know why or how I really got it.”   


“Keith.”

  
“Why do you think I always get changed in the bathrooms? Or I would keep my shirt on during the swimming activities? It’s because if anyone saw this they’d treat me like a freak or a spectacle or-“   


“Keith!”   


Keith stopped talking, mid-monologue, and stared at Lance, who held his hand out.   


“Take off your shirt and get in the lake,” he said calmly, turning the tables on the conversation entirely. First Keith had been the adult but now Lance was rational and calm and more than ever Keith wanted to slap him across the face.   


“I’m not accepting your pity,” Keith scowled, “Just because I’m a burn victim it doesn’t mean you have to start treating me nicely.”   


“You’re going to take your shirt off and get in the water eventually Mullet, but I can’t promise it’ll be in that order.”   


“Oh yeah?” Keith said annoyed, “How will you make me?”   


Without warning Lance shot out of the water like a dolphin and grabbed the tangling shirt sleeve dangling down over the water and pulled-Keith may have only been holding it balanced on his hand but the shock was enough to unbalance Keith into the water. It was icy and unpleasant as it seeped quickly through his clothes and surrounded him in inescapable chill  


“You jerk!” Keith spluttered.

  
“Hey now, you’re the one getting all my clothes wet,” Lance retorted as he through his now soaking shirt and jeans onto the dock along with his socks, “And your own. No one to blame but yourself.”   


Filled with unbridled rage Keith roared and pushed his way through the water in a desperate attempt to wrap his hands around Lance’s neck and squeeze. Keith swam and swam but Lance seemed to constantly be just a few feet out of reach. Keith’s shoes were soaked with water and his jeans hugged his legs uncomfortably tight and pulled him down. His shirt caught water and slowed him down and made his movements more difficult, and so Lance remained just out of reach.   


“Bet you wished you’d taken off your shirt now huh?” Lance laughed goadingly, “Shame really, all my clothes are sitting on the dock safely.” He paused. “Actually I should lay them out to dry before tomorrow.”   


With an inhuman speed Lance shot off towards the dock and Keith pushed himself harder and harder to catch up. In the moonlight the lake seemed far bigger and by the time Keith had caught up with Lance the other boy had spread his clothes out neatly and shot away just far enough that Keith would have to turn and retrace his lengths.   


“You’d be moving a lot faster without all those layers weighing you down,” Lance advised smugly, “But I guess you’re keeping them on because, what, I might find out your secret otherwise?”   


Keith growled and pulled his shirt off, earning a whoop from Lance. He glared in his direction as he struggled out of his shoes and jeans too and made a big show out of laying them out in a fashion similar to Lance’s (which took much difficulty as he couldn’t reach quite the same onto the dock and so couldn’t get his clothes proper purchase.)   


Mimicking Lance, Keith shot off from the dock toward him without warning and found the water far easier to speed through. His hair clung to his forehead and hung heavy on his head and the deafening silence surrounding him made his swimming sound more powerful and determined in contrast to the stillness of the night. Soon he found himself approaching faster on Lance and managed to grab his ankle, stopping them both in their tracks right in the middle of the lake.   


“You caught me,” Lance laughed, “What’re you gonna do with me.”  


Keith wanted to strangle Lance or drown him or shout at him or any number of things but he felt so tired from pushing his body so hard and skipping dinner.   


He settled for pushing Lance underwater.   


The other boy wiggled in his grip but Keith held on tightly and kept him under. Bubbles emerged from Lance’s mouth but it seemed more like they were bubbles from laughter than screaming and Lance’s arms eventually found Keith’s legs and began to tug. Seeking something to pull on Lance’s hands eventually held onto Keith’s boxers and in panic he let go of Lance.

  
Lance shot up in the water laughing and coughing water whilst Keith blushed and straightened his only remaining clothing out.   


Lance sucked in a large gulp of air and dived under the water, leaving Keith alone in the eerily still water. Keith spun around looking for where Lance had gone but saw no sign of him-a good ten seconds passed under something brushed against his foot making him yelp in a high pitched voice.

  
Lance erupted from the water and laughed like a kid, darting to the side               every time Keith attempted to grab him; every time Keith missed he’d joke at him or goad him or any do some idiotic thing that Keith couldn’t suppress a smile at. Before long Lance had Keith laughing and all the anger he’d felt had melted away into the water.   


“Just…stay…still!” Keith roared with triumph as his hands grasped Lance’s shoulders.

  
“What’re you gonna do to me then?” teased Lance and before he could stop himself Keith pulled Lance in tight, squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his lips up against Lance’s in a damp, terrifying kiss. Lance froze up but didn’t move away and Keith’s brain screamed and cried with dozens of buzzing feelings, joy, fear, excitement, embarrassment, triumph, anxiety.   


Just as suddenly as he’d moved in for the kiss Keith moved away and said in a low, scared voice “This.” Lance stared on in amazement and moved in again; washing away all of Keith’s remaining fears and intensifying every other feeling he’d been feeling. Adrenaline raced through his veins and he only pulled away when he realised that he wasn’t quite floating anymore.   


“Careful there red, don’t want you drowning on me,” Lance grinned. Keith held onto Lance and laughed and Lance let one hand rest against Keith’s side, using the other to float. “And now you’re not even thinking about how you’re not wearing a shirt are you?”   


Keith blushed and realised both that Lance’s hand was holding his burn and that he didn’t at all mind that he had his hand there. Keith even leaned into the touch.   


“Thank you Lance,” Keith murmured.   


“Thank _you_ Keith,” Lance smiled back, “I’m sorry I hurt you so much earlier.”   


Keith shook his head, “After just now you shouldn’t be sorry.”   


“We need to dry off and sleep don’t we,” Lance sighed peacefully.   


Keith thought for a moment, “It’s way too late for us to be sneaking into the cabin, they’d assume things and Hunk would probably be so smug about this whole thing.”   


“God you’re right he’ll be unbearable.”   


“We could lie on the dock and wait it out until morning,” Keith suggested and felt Lance’s hand slip off of his side.

  
“Race you then,” he grinned and immediately shot off. Keith swore and followed quickly but found himself in no way a match for Lance. His body seemed to move not just through the water but with it, the ripples he caused and splashes closer to the natural sounds of a water fall or the waves than a foreign object asserting itself through them.   


Lance reached the dock a good thirty seconds before Keith and had already smugly pulled himself up, where he sat waiting with a hand outstretched for Keith.   


“About time,” he smiled. Keith took his hand and pulled, not attempting to raise himself but instead pulling Lance down back into the water. As Lance spluttered and flailed Keith hoisted himself, with difficulty, back up onto the dock where their clothes sat drying.   


“That’s for tricking me into the water,” Keith said smugly. He offered out a tentative hand and helped Lance up onto the dock.   


They sat together, for a while, on the end of the dock and stared up at the swirling constellations. The night sky that deep into the woods was beautiful-beneath the full moon the lake still glimmered and shone with light but the stars themselves were the most incredible part. In the town where Keith normally lived there were too many streetlights and too much pollution to see much of anything in the night sky but out here, on the beautiful summer’s night it was, the universe seemed so much brighter and so much more beautiful than ever he’d seen it. The stars were bright and big or smaller and subtler, barely a patch of sky not taken up in some way by the shimmering lights. And along with that the sky revealed itself to be so much more than black void, showing off deep blues and the darkest of purples across the entire canvas sky.

  
Lance slowly laid back and Keith followed, resting his head on Lance’s shoulder. He laid there for a while staring at the eternity above them but eventually the ache in his limbs and the heaviness of his eyelids took Keith back into sleep.   


***  


Keith woke peacefully in the morning, though only for a moment. In the few seconds it took to wake up Keith felt peaceful but then the thoughts of what he might have missed hit him and he bolted upright-had he missed breakfast? What about the day’s activities? Would Hunk or Coran have taken his kids or were they left alone to their own devices? By now Stephanie would have imposed Martial Law on them!   


But spotting Shiro making his way down the path on a morning jog Keith suddenly felt relieved-Shiro was out running so it couldn’t be that late yet.   


Keith shook Lance’s shoulder, “Lance,” he murmured tiredly, “We gotta get up Shiro’s coming.”   


Lance mumbled something unintelligible and Keith shook him again harder and Lance bolted upright with his eyes still shut. He seemed completely asleep so Keith dipped his hand in the lake and smeared it against Lance’s face.   


Lance groggily opened his eyes and yawned, “You couldn’t have let me have a few more minutes?” he smiled tiredly and Keith pointed down the path at Shiro. Lance yelped and covered his chest. “You slept on my arm it’s gone completely dead!”   


“Stop whining and get dressed, you know what Shiro will assume.”   


Their clothing still slightly damp hugged their skin uncomfortably but Keith still managed to pull on his shoes and jeans and shirt before Shiro made his way down. Lance however was struggling with his trousers.   


“Keith,” he muttered, “I think you’re wearing my jeans.”   


That would explain why they were so baggy. Keith began to pull off his shoes as fast as he could and tugged off the jeans, leaving himself and Lance half naked when Shiro jogged his way up to them.   


He gave the two of them a judgemental look, “And you realise this is a _kids_ summer camp?” he commented with an arched eyebrow.   


“It’s not what it looks like!” Lance yelped immediately, hands covering his dignity, “We went swimming and then it got late and-“   


“Get back to the staff cabin, clean up and then head to breakfast,” Shiro ordered. Keith began to slip one leg into his jeans and Shiro shook his head, “Immediately, there’s not much time until the day starts.” Keith and Lance slumped dejectedly along the second path to the staff cabin, still without trousers or shoes.   


“This is all your fault,” Lance muttered and Keith couldn’t help but smile.   


“You’re the one who went skinny dipping alone, anything could have happened.”   


The two of them bickered all the way back to the staff cabin where they found, to both of their annoyances, that the rest of the team were asleep-Shiro had tricked them into walking back humiliated when Hunk and Coran laid fast asleep in bed, leaving Allura to watch over the kids most likely.   


“When we get in, I take the left bathroom, you take the right,” Lance said, “We get cleaned up and normal as fast as possible and then we get back at Shiro.”   


Keith nodded, “Agreed.”   


They snuck through the cabin, past the two snoring men, and went their separate ways. Keith held his head under the shower and washed all the lake water out of his hair. Standing under the spray he thought about the previous night and barely contained an uncharacteristic squeal of glee and excitement. He’d _kissed_ Lance. Lance had kissed _him_.   


He wished he could remember the time they’d spent together at the camp when they were younger.   


Keith wrapped a towel around himself, careful to hide his burn, and bolted to his bed. He pulled a set of clothes from where they sat and raced back into the bathroom. He got dressed and sat down on his bed.

  
Despite the hot shower he could still feel the little sleep he’d got bearing down on him like an anchor. There was no way he’d make it through to the end of the day, he just prayed that whatever activity he and his campers did together would be easy.   


But as a well desired and seemingly incredible and perfect tasting breakfast came and went and they all saw the day Coran had set out for them Keith realised what he was in for-in preparation for Shiro’s camp wide competition in 4 days’ time he had set up, what he called, a training course, for any kind of activity Shiro could possibly throw at them. This involved multiple sections for physical, mental, survival and creative skills, all of which Keith had had to participate in after Pidge had tried to worm her way out. Her logic was that as a paladin she shouldn’t have to take part in the physical portion, and so Coran let all of the paladins go first.   


They arranged the entire camp’s worth of kids in the activity area, though few strayed from their teams. Stephanie had wandered off to her brother and stood apart from the crowd and Symi had dragged another girl, also in a hijab and bearing intense familial resemblance to Symi, to stand with her and Lucy.   


The first course Coran had them run was the physical course, wherein Keith had to jump through hastily arranged tires and avoid large puddles of mud Coran had made. By the end of it Lance called dibs on his team training there first and, much to Keith’s surprise, seemed invigorated and happy to work.

  
Probably something to do with getting to watch Keith and Pidge plunge headfirst into the mud that woke him up; doubling over with laughter does that.

  
Coran had them all sit through the mental tests next, leaving the remaining three quarters of the camp to watch them struggle with brain teasers and puzzles. Stephanie and Symi seemed to be less interested without their siblings with them, both of them belonging to blue team.   


Hunk and Pidge both excelled at the brain teasers but Keith found himself stuck immediately-he didn’t know the exchange of miles into kilometres nor the currency used in Indonesia so he got frustrated and stuck quickly. His team egged him on and cheered, even Malcolm seeming to show enthusiasm at one point, but the only purpose it served was to make Keith feel worse for failing.   


Leaving Hunk and Pidge to exercise their clearly already overstimulated mental skills Coran marched his team off to the ‘Survival Zone’ he’d set up, and looking over the piles of plants and tents and camping necessities Keith decided he didn’t mind being left to play Arts n Crafts with his kids again.   


“So you’re not going to be making anything specific this time,” Keith told his campers as he handed out coloured card, safety scissors, crayons and glue (Malcolm shot Keith a look as if to say _Aren’t I a little old for this?_ But Keith ignored it), “Instead you’re going to be making something that you come up with. This is about creativity so following instructions wouldn’t be the right thing to do. And, er, whichever of you comes up with the best idea by the end gets to pick our next activity.”   


Keith was proud of the way he’d managed to work out his morning-his kid’s would be left to their own devices and Keith wouldn’t have to do anything except stop them hurting themselves and help them if they got frustrated.   


Keith took a seat towards the back of the arts n crafts marquee and rested his head gently against a pole supporting the marquee. Without meaning to Keith closed his eyes and sleep overtook him.

***  


Keith was jostled awake by a small herd of children all shouting and panicking and his instincts took over, shooting him wide awake.   


“Is he gonna die?” one of the boys whimpered.   


“I bet it’s gonna swell up all big and just fall off,” a girl’s voice said, “One of my dads managed that once on a thing in our garage called a vice.”   


“Just get help!” a desperate older voice called, “Like Shiro or the Princess!”   


“What’s happening?” Keith asked groggily, wiping a hand across his eyes and imagining he could wipe his tiredness away with it.   


“Malcolm got his hand stuck!” Daniel said in a panicked tone, “He tried to pick up the table and move it and his hand slipped now none of us can move it off of his hand!”

  
Keith stood up and looked at Malcolm, wincing in pain, on the thin plastic floor beneath the marquee trying to keep his hand as still as possible to minimise pain under the big, heavy, wooden tables. For years these things had been here, though Keith didn’t realise they were so heavy. He assumed they were out there as the men who ran the camp before wouldn’t have wanted to bother with moving them. Keith rushed over to Malcolm.  


“Why were you trying to move the table?” Keith asked.   


“Daniel wanted to sit with Lucy, Inan and Nathan so they asked me to move the table,” he grunted, “I didn’t get very far.”   


Keith nodded, “I’m gonna try to lift the table now okay?” Malcolm grimaced and nodded. “Ok on the count of three. One…two…three!” Keith put as much strength into his lift as he could but the heavy wooden table didn’t move beyond lightly lifting before dropping again.   


“Is he gonna die?” Inan repeated.   


“Okay, I’m going to need help,” Keith murmured but a dark voice in his head whispered to him what a bad idea that was-who could he go to after all? Would he really want Hunk to see him failing this hard, or to give Shiro yet another reason to be disappointed in him, or let Allura or Coran see how irresponsible Keith was to fall asleep on the job or, worst, let Lance see how little he could protect his kids when Lance was able to take such good care of his own, especially after they’ve only just reconciled and possibly grown into something new?

  
Then Keith realised he had everyone he needed right there.   


“Okay Malcolm you have to trust me okay?” Keith asked and Malcolm nodded hastily. Keith turned to the assembled crowd of kids behind him. “All of us are gonna have to try to lift the table at the same time,” he announced, “But we’re not going to try it from the leg like Malcolm, we’ll do it from the top. We only have to lift it enough to let him pull his hand out.”   


Keith assembled the kids, save for a brooding Stephanie, around the table and on the count of three again began to lift it. With the assistance of the half a dozen 8-11 year olds they managed to lift the table nearly the full height necessary to get Malcolm’s hand out.   


“We just need a little more strength,” Keith grunted, looking wildly for some way to help. His eyes rest on Stephanie’s mint hair, “Stephanie, please, help us.”   


“My brother says the team leaders can’t actually make us do anything if we don’t want to,” she sniffed, “And I don’t want to do what you tell me to do.”   


Malcolm let out a groan of pain, “Stephanie _please_ ,” he pleaded and she hesitated before stepping forward and pushing her hands under the table. On the count of three they lifted again and Malcolm managed to slide his hand out with little complication. It bore a red imprint of the table leg that had already begun to fade and would most likely be fine, save for, most likely, a small bruise.   


“Good work everyone,” Keith smiled, “I think we can head off to lunch and, for being the most important person in lifting the table off of Malcolm, _Stephanie_ can pick our next activity.”   


Keith got the desired reaction-Stephanie’s eyes widened and, rather than complain about how clearly unfair or ridiculous it was, the other kids started cheering which course they wanted to do next. On the walk back Keith hung to the back of the crowd to talk to Malcolm-Stephanie led their procession as the others followed her to beg their chosen activity.   


“It doesn’t seem like all that really hurt much,” Keith said in a low voice. Malcolm gave him an ashamed, shy look.   


“I was more embarrassed than hurt,” he admitted in a mumble, “It didn’t really hurt having the table there but I couldn’t get it off so I just, um…”   


“Faked it?” Malcolm nodded. “And what about your voice when you were begging Stephanie to help?”   


“I took drama camp last summer instead of coming here. I wasn’t terrible at it as it turns out.”   


“Acting, singing and guitar,” Keith said, “All of your interests revolve around preforming and yet whenever anyone is looking your way you try to hide yourself.”   


Malcolm’s face hardened and he quickened his pace, which left Keith alone at the back of the pack. Keith made a silent vow to break through to Malcolm by the end of the summer, or at the very least make him make a friend out of someone. If Keith had had someone looking after him at the camp he’d probably not still be trapped there now, and he’d be damned if Malcolm was stuck somewhere like this forever.   


Of course, Keith contemplated, the camp wasn’t entirely bad-as his group made his way into the mess hall he saw Lance’s team already sitting and eating lunch happily along with Hunk’s. Lance sipped on a thermos drearily but nonetheless beckoned Keith over.

  
“How’s your group going?” Lance yawned, taking another long swig from his thermos and shuddered.   


Keith gave a hesitant glance at Malcolm. “Fine,” he lied, “How’s yours?”   


“If we weren’t doing the physical course I would’ve fallen asleep,” Lance replied groggily, “I have no idea how I’m gonna do the brain teaser tests, but I know for a fact I’ll be stuck with it.”   


“Take my one, we’re changing after lunch,” Keith said, “Stephanie’s gets to pick which one we do.”   


“Which one is Stephanie?”   


“The one with the mint green hair.”

  
“Isaac’s twin?”   


“I didn’t know his name,” Keith said.  


“I didn’t know hers,” Lance replied and took another sip with another shudder from his thermos.   


“What’re you even drinking?” Keith asked, eying Lance’s drink with suspicion.   


“It’s coffee, I had Hunk whip it up,” he said, “Tastes horrible but I’m desperate to stay awake.”   


Keith felt slightly guilty that he’d kept Lance up so late but pushed past it-this was the first time he’d been able to talk to Lance since the wee hours of the morning.   


Keith chatted to Lance for a while before walking his kids back to the activity area, accompanied by Hunk’s group. Daniel, Lucy, Symi and Inan all charged ahead, eager to try out whatever their next activity was whilst Wiki and Stephanie talked, Stephanie seeming surprisingly interested in the conversation. Malcolm stood near the group with his hood pulled up over his head and drawn tight sulking or brooding.  Coran’s team passed them and he waved hello as they marched on.  


Once at the mouth of the activity area Keith stood in front of the group. “Stephanie, what did you decide you wanted to do?”   


Stephanie gave Wiki a nervous look and received a thumb up in response. She took a long breath, “The brain teasers seemed fun,” she murmured and Wiki patted her back supportively.   


“Okay then team, we’re doing Coran’s puzzle tent.”   


The rest of the afternoon was spent going through various mental anguish for Keith, realising it wasn’t enough to be able to just read the answers out to a group of children but he also had to understand  how to get the answer, which was the part he didn’t quite know.   


“’The numbers are 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 and 34’” Symi read, “’What is the next number in the sequence?’” She frowned, “I don’t get it.”   


Symi turned to Keith who pulled a brave, supportive face. “Why not try asking your team mates?”   


“It’s the Fibonacci Sequence,” Stephanie said immediately, “It’s a sequence of numbers where the next number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two numbers. The next number would be 55.”   


Keith kept the feeling of surprise off of his face and nodded as he read the answer, almost word for word, off of the card. Stephanie grinned and high fived Wiki. So far every single answer he’d read, Stephanie had known. She seemed to eerily enjoy the entire activity and chatted with Wiki loudly and happily, which unnerved Keith-he felt slightly guilty for making so many assumptions about her and decided to give her more of a chance  


The afternoon progressed like that, every time an answer was not known being supplied by Stephanie, until eventually Inan and Lucy’s complaints of hunger lead them to dinner. On the walk back Stephanie left Wiki to, much to his surprise, walk with Malcolm. Keith walked close behind them eavesdropping.   


“…And so my brother said if I want to get back at him I need know to about what he wouldn’t want me to know,” Stephanie told a glum Malcolm, “Wiki knows one of his secrets but she won’t tell me because she thinks it’s wrong. What do you know?”   


Malcolm’s shoulders drew together defensively. “I don’t know anything.”   


“You two talk a lot,” Stephanie continued, ignoring Malcolm’s response, “He must have said something.”   


“I just want to go home kid,” Malcolm muttered, “You wouldn’t understand.”   


“Don’t make me tell my brother about you,” Stephanie warned, “You wouldn’t like that.”  Feeling the ominous threat could mean nothing good Keith coughed loudly to let the two know he was there. Stephanie turned around startled and plastered a huge grin across her face. “Sorry I didn’t realise you were there,” she smiled, which for no clear reason unnerved Keith, “It won’t happen again.” Stephanie strode off which left Keith and Malcolm alone.   


“What was that all about?” Keith asked Malcolm, and in reply had Malcolm storm off from him in a sulk. Keith shook his head and remained undeterred, refusing to allow this to make him feel dejected. He’d kissed Lance earlier and he’d forced Stephanie to enjoy a camp activity, it had been a good day.

  
The following meal followed the theme though dinner and the following campfire was but a blur to Keith-the heaviness of his eyes and the clumsiness of his tired limbs kept him too distracted to remember much of anything. The two events of that night Keith remembered before the walk back to bed was Lance falling asleep on his shoulder (cue blushing) and Coran using the guitar to play a song he called ‘Classical Gas’.   


That night, without brushing his teeth or getting changed, Keith flopped into bed and, as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light.


End file.
